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Christie planning to cut government expenses, enact tax reforms
By ANDREA CLURFELD
GANNETT NEW JERSEY
https://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20091215/NEWS/912150337/1098/POLITICS
Gov.-elect Chris Christie said he plans to cut expenses at every level of government and enact measures to make sure “we won’t be pushing problems downstream to local taxpayers.”
In an exclusive interview with the Asbury Park Press, Christie said he will use many of the ideas that came out of the 2006 special legislative session on property taxes as well as those laid out by the Press in its “Fighting New Jersey’s Tax Crush” series published in September and October.
“We need to reform the (tax) system from top to bottom,” Christie said.
High on the governor-elect’s list is eliminating loopholes in the 4 percent cap on annual increases in municipal government spending. The cap has been in place for years, but allows a number of exemptions for budget items ranging from health care costs to bond payments. The result has been annual property tax increases that exceed the rate of inflation.
Christie said he wants to enact reforms that will “make it a hard cap. Right now, we have a Swiss cheese cap.”
Christie said he also would:
Change the rules of binding interest arbitration in public employee contract negotiations to make sure arbitrators adhere to new cap standards.
Put the brakes on “teacher contracts that increase salaries by 4 to 5 percent and then, on top of it, layer on to it health benefit increases and pension expenses increases.”
Review mid-level management jobs at school boards statewide because “we no longer can have that plethora of mid-management … that are not necessarily bringing quality to the classroom.”
Should Christie find his reforms stalled, he said he would call for a constitutional convention. The Legislature and voters would have to approve such a convention, which would give elected delegates the power to reform the state’s tax system by presenting voters with amendments to the state constitution. The last convention was held in 1966 to increase the number of lawmakers.
“I want the voters to give me two years to fix it without a convention,” he said. “If we get to the mid-term (elections) in 2011 and I report to voters that, despite my best efforts, we haven’t been able to get this done because systemic forces are blocking us, then we have to change the system. And I will call for a constitutional convention.”
William G. Dressel Jr., executive director of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, said that if the state is “going to be fair, then the most egregious driver of property taxes must be addressed — binding arbitration. That is a budget buster. And that is one area in which Governor-elect Christie won’t budge.”
https://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20091215/NEWS/912150337/1098/POLITICS
