A packed house greeted Gov. Chris Christie during his town hall meeting at the clubhouse in the Westlake adult community in Jackson on April 19. The governor touched on a number of topics that are of interest to New Jersey residents. The governor chided the state Legislature for failing to act on a series of reforms he has proposed. PHOTOS BY DAVE BENJAMIN JACKSON — Republican Gov. Chris Christie is attempting to make legislators take action on his proposed reforms, but New Jersey’s top elected official may have a difficult time getting his way with Democrats in control of theAssembly and Senate.
Christie held a town hall meeting in the clubhouse at Jackson’s Westlake adult community on April 19. A standing-room-only crowd estimated at more than 500 people packed the room to listen to the state’s No. 1 executive.
The event was open to the public and not just to residents of the Westlake development.
Gov. Chris Christie “It’s a hard time to be a local elected official in New Jersey,” Christie said. “[Today] the price of everything the government does is much too high, and people are crying out for relief.”
The governor said he believes New Jersey is moving in the right direction, but he told the audience that the improvements he wants to make are going to require pain and sacrifice.
“We have more work to do, and this will not be painless,” said Christie, a former U.S. Attorney who is now in the second year of a four-year term.
The governor told his audience that people are leaving the Garden State because they cannot afford to stay and pay the taxes.
Published reports have indicated that New Jersey property owners pay the highest property taxes in the United States.
Christie said people cannot have everything they want unless they are willing to pay for it. He said that in certain circumstances, people now have the right to vote on what is provided in a municipal budget.
The governor took aim at what he dubbed the state’s “do-nothing Legislature” and said there are only 72 days left for the Assembly and Senate to act on various reforms he has proposed. He chastised the body for failing to act on the bills he has dubbed his tool kit for reform.
Christie has proposed reforms to the state’s pension system for public employees.
Published reports have indicated that New Jersey’s pension funds are significantly underfunded based on the number of employees who will draw from the pension system, the amount of the pensions to be paid, the length of time the pensions will be paid to retirees, and the state’s underfunding of its obligations.
The governor said he has put forth a plan to address those underfunded pension plans while maintaining pensions for individuals who currently receive one.
The Legislature has not addressed the issue.
Christie then turned his attention to public education and noted that the cost of K-12 education in 2009-10 was $25 billion, which was funded primarily by the state budget and through property taxes.
“We still have 104,000 children trapped in over 200 failing schools in New Jersey, and in Asbury Park we pay $32,000 per pupil and less than 50 percent of children [there] have an eighth-grade proficiency in math,” the governor told those gathered. In Newark they [spend] $24,500 per pupil and out of all the children who entered the ninth grade in the Newark school system this year, only 29 percent will graduate.”
The governor once again urged the Legislature to take action on various education reforms.
Another topic that has been in the news lately is the large payment some public employees have received upon their retirement. The employees are being compensated for sick time and vacation time they accrued but did not take during the course of their employment with a public entity.
Some municipal officials have said that when hundreds of employees retire in the same year, these payments can total hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars.
Christie said employees should be paid for the time they are sick and not for sick days they do not take.
“Eight municipalities in New Jersey paid out [a total of] $39 million in sick leave [to retiring employees] in 2010,” the governor said. “Just the sick leave payout alone cost an extra $240 on the property tax bill [for residents of] Jersey City last year. I don’t believe people should be paid for not being sick.”
Turning his focus to Barnegat Bay, which is an important issue to many people in Ocean County, the governor said the bay must be protected for reasons relating to tourism and the character of New Jersey.
Other topics that were touched upon were charter schools, and certain public authorities and commissions that in some cases have promoted nepotism.
Christie noted that he addressed the nepotism and poor management issues at certain public authorities by demanding that commissioners of the authorities resign their positions.
“People have to be held responsible for the problems they make, and we have 72 days to hold this do-nothing Legislature responsible. It’s time to get to work,” the governor told the crowd in Jackson.