The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
BY MARY JO LAYTON AND LINDY WASHBURN
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD
Governor Christie is expected on Friday to call for legislation creating a two-year moratorium on efforts by municipalities to get property tax payments from non-profit hospitals – more than a dozen lawsuits have already been filed – as well as a blue-ribbon panel to study the issue.
By Brent Johnson | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on March 03, 2016 at 8:33 PM, updated March 04, 2016 at 7:33 AM
TRENTON — Facing calls for his resignation and scrutiny over his endorsement of Donald Trump for president, Gov. Chris Christie stood at a podium for nearly two hours Thursday and answered questions about a slew of topics during a sprawling Statehouse news conference.
Here is a closer look at what he discussed:
1. His focus on New Jersey
Christie was repeatedly criticized for spending so much time out of state on his own presidential campaign. Then after endorsing Donald Trump last week and campaigning for him, af few irked Republican state lawmakers called on Christie to either get off the trail or step down.
But Christie stressed Thursday that he has been in New Jersey 19 of the 22 days since ending his White House bid. He emphasized that he will not be “a full-time surrogate for Donald Trump.” And, he said, he has “absolutely no intention” to resign.
“I am here,” he said. “I am back to work.”
Amid rumors he could be Trump’s pick for vice president or U.S. attorney general, Christie said he is “not interviewing (for) or considering any other public job” and plans to finish his second and final term as governor.
2. Why he is backing Trump
Some supporters said they felt betrayed when Christie threw his support behind Trump, whom he once said was “unfit” to be president and whom many establishment GOP members say is a danger to the party.
But Christie said he and Trump have been friends for 14 years and that the billionaire businessman and former Atlantic City casino tycoon has the best shot among the Republican field at beating Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in the general election.
The governor added that his endorsement “doesn’t change me being serious and policy-minded and all those things.”
“But I have to make a choice,” he said. “I don’t sit on the sidelines. I don’t wait for other people to make things happen. I try to make things happen. So now I’m trying to make things happen to make sure Hillary Clinton doesn’t become president of the United States.”
3. Why his campaign failed
Christie gave several reasons for why his campaign for president failed: He couldn’t raise enough money, which made it hard to respond to attack ads in New Hampshire. There were too many candidates in the race. And there was Trump.
“If he had not been in the race,” Christie said, “I would have been the nominee.”
4. About those newspapers
Christie ‘not surprised’ at The Star-Ledger calling for his resignationGov. Chris Christie comments on his reaction to two of the state’s largest newspapers calling for his resignation. The N.J. governor held a press conference on March 2, 2016 to talk about jobs and employment in the state. (Courtesy NJTV)
Shortly after Christie’s Trump endorsement, Joseph McQuaid, the publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader, said the governor swore to him weeks before he would not endorse the businessman. But Christie said he did not lie.
Christie said McQuaid called him two days after the governor placed sixth in the New Hampshire primary election. McQuaid wanted to know if it was true Christie was endorsing Trump that day.
“I said, ‘Absolutely not true. I am not endorsing anyone,'” the governor recalled. “It was two days after the primary.”
Christie said when he ultimately decided to throw his support behind Trump, “I knew Joe was going to mad. But I made a choice. He obviously doesn’t like Donald Trump.”
The Union Leader had endorsed Christie, but after the Trump endorsement, it retracted and declared, “Boy were we wrong.”
Christie also slammed The Star-Ledger, which called on him to resign Thursday morning. He said the paper “never supported me, my policies, or my existence.”
Star-Ledger columnist Tom Moran responded by saying the paper backed him in his 2013 re-election bid, as well as on pension reform, a property tax cap, and more.
list of terrible governors that the media has protected some more than other
James Florio January 16, 1990January 18, 1994 Democratic
Christine Todd Whitman January 18, 1994 January 31, 2001 Republican
Donald DiFrancesco January 31, 2001 January 8, 2002 Republican
John Farmer, Jr.January 8, 2002 January 8, 2002 Republican
John O. Bennett January 8, 2002 January 12, 2002 Republican
Richard Codey January 12, 2002 January 15, 2002 Democratic
Jim McGreevey January 15, 2002 November 15, 2004 Democratic
Richard Codey November 15, 2004 January 17, 2006 Democratic ( best one since Kean)
Jon Corzine January 17, 2006 January 19, 2010 Democratic
Trying to get in front of calls for him to resign, the persistently nationally barnstorming Gov. Chris Christie today charged the media with protecting former Governor Jon Corzine when the Democrat was governor. Max Pizarro, PolitickerNJ Read more
BY DUSTIN RACIOPPI
STATE HOUSE BUREAU |
THE RECORD
Governor Christie on Monday nominated a Republican judge for a long-vacant seat on the state Supreme Court and named a successor for the state’s outgoing acting attorney general, moving to fill two high-profile vacancies that loomed as question marks over the rest of his tenure.
But he refused to discuss anything else — not his disappointing bid for the White House, not his controversial endorsement of Donald Trump. He conducted his first local news conference since dropping out of the race last month in regimented fashion, at least four times swatting down off-topic questions and telling one reporter, “Permission denied.” Christie also blocked the opportunity for anyone to ask him about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Monday morning, favorable to his administration, to decline ruling on a case challenging billions of dollars in cuts to the public employee pension fund, therefore allowing the reductions to stand.
Now, after his brief and tightly controlled appearance in Trenton, Christie sets off to campaign with Trump in Ohio and Kentucky during the Super Tuesday nominating contests having laid down a challenge to Democrats in New Jersey that he also hopes will resonate in Washington, D.C.
The death last month of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has triggered a battle between Republicans who control Congress and President Obama, who has 11 months left in his term, over who will fill the conservative justice’s seat on n the bench, potentially shaping the court for years to come.
N.J. public employee unions irked by Christie call to cut health benefits
Gov. Chris Christie’s budget address came with a public challenge to cut $250 million from state employees’ health benefits. Samantha Marcus, NJ.com Read more
US Supreme Court declines to hear case about NJ pensions
BY SALVADOR RIZZO
STATE HOUSE BUREAU |
THE RECORD
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to rule on a major case involving payments to New Jersey’s pension system for public employees.
The case concerned Governor Christie’s decision to cut billions of dollars in payments he had once promised for the retirement system.
Christie began to cut those payments in 2014 despite signing laws in his first term that pledged more than $16 billion over seven years for the troubled retirement system.
Public worker unions sued, arguing that Christie and the state Legislature could not skip the higher payments. The New Jersey Supreme Court disagreed, ruling 5-2 in June that the seven-year plan was not legally binding.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/us-supreme-court-declines-to-hear-case-about-nj-pensions-1.1519692
Trump gained a powerful surrogate responsible for the lowest moment in the campaign of one of his last Republican adversaries: Marco Rubio.
The united Republican establishment front against Donald Trump started to crumble in a potentially profound way on Friday when New Jersey Governor Chris Christie backed the New York billionaire for president with an enthusiastic endorsement.
The move, combined with the endorsement of Maine Governor Paul LePage later Friday, adds the establishment bona fides of two sitting U.S. governors to a devoutly outsider campaign. It also comes just days after Trump’s first two congressional endorsements in Representatives Chris Collins of New York and Duncan Hunter of California.
In Christie, Trump also gained a powerful surrogate responsible for the lowest moment in the campaign of one of his last Republican adversaries: Marco Rubio.
The New Jersey governor also opened a door for other Republican Party elites, who spent recent days rushing to boost Rubio, and invited them to walk through. If beating Hillary Clinton outweighed all other factors, as the New Jersey governor argued, then other objections to Trump’s campaign—such as his bombastic and nativist rhetoric—should take a back seat. As a twice-elected governor of a blue state and former chairman of the Republican Governors Association, Christie could serve as Trump’s ambassador to establishment donors, lawmakers and behind-the-scenes operators across the nation.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SOMERVILLE — A prosecutor under scrutiny for his murder-suicide finding in the deaths of a prominent New Jersey couple will be replaced by a federal prosecutor, Gov. Chris Christie’s office announced Thursday.
Christie to suspend campaign
Christie heading home to evaluate campaign’s future
By Ben Kamisar
Chris Christie said he is taking a pause from the campaign trail to “take a deep breath” and evaluate his presidential campaign’s future after a poor showing in New Hampshire.
“We are going to go home to New Jersey tomorrow, and we are going to take a deep breath, see what the final results are tonight, because that matters,” Christie said at a speech Tuesday night as the New Hampshire primary results poured in.
“We will make our next step forward based on the complete results in New Hampshire.”
Christie had banked his presidential hopes on New Hampshire. With about half of the votes counted, he is in sixth place.
If he fails to finish in the top five, he’ll likely miss the cut for Saturday’s GOP debate.
Chris Christie Expected to Formally End Presidential Bid as Early as Today
By JOSH MARGOLIN
JORDYN PHELPS
Feb 10, 2016, 10:53 AM
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is expected to formally suspend his presidential campaign as early as today after he huddles with his closest advisers, ABC News has learned.
A statement announcing the suspension could come as soon as early this afternoon, according to a source briefed on Christie’s plans.
“We bet the ranch on New Hampshire, and no one ever anticipated the Trump phenomenon,” the source told ABC News. “He’s a realist.”
Christie’s New Hampshire campaign Chairman Wayne MacDonald, who is not involved in today’s deliberations but is familiar with the campaign’s strategy, said that qualifying for the next debate is likely a major factor in the deliberations.
And with the governor’s 6th place finish in New Hampshire, he does not qualify to make the stage.
Municipalities may try to levy property taxes against non-profit hospitals now that Governor Christie has vetoed legislation that enshrined the property tax exemption of the non-profits and instead would have required them to pay a community-service fee.
Advocates of the measure said they planned to return this session with a bill that satisfies the governor, while protecting hospitals from costly lawsuits and compensating local governments for some of the services they provide.
State Senate President Stephen Sweeney said he was “extremely disappointed” with the governor’s action, which he attributed to the governor’s “personal political ambitions.” By assessing a fee on non-profit institutions, the measure might have been construed as a new tax by Christie’s conservative competitors for the Republican presidential nomination, Democrats said.
The measure followed last summer’s Tax Court decision that invalidated the property-tax exemption enjoyed by non-profit Morristown Medical Center. The hospital’s parent company, Atlantic Health System, eventually agreed to pay $15.5 million to satisfy back taxes and interest, and will make future payments of about $1 million annually as tax on the for-profit part of its operations.
Non-profit hospitals across the state have been concerned that they, too, will face costly litigation — and big tax bills. In a historic shift, those hospitals had volunteered to make the “community contributions” outlined by the measure that went before the governor.
“We are disappointed with the pocket veto,” said Betsy Ryan, president and CEO of the state’s largest hospital association.
But critics had considered the measure lenient on the hospitals. Several local governments had expressed concern that the measure shortchanged local governments. Its $2.50 per-bed, per-day fee was far too little, they said. The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, for example, would have been assessed about $407,000 annually, less than one-tenth of the potential property taxes on its full 15.5-acre property.
Some municipalities already are in “fact-finding mode” and are requesting information from their hospitals about their for-profit and non-profit operations, said Michael Cerra, vice president of the New Jersey League of Municipalities, which opposed the measure. “No one is looking to put anyone out of business,” he said.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/nj-state-news/veto-leaves-hospitals-open-to-lawsuits-1.1495249
Text of the governor’s State of the State Speech
Lt. Governor, Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Legislators, friends – and my fellow New Jerseyans: Politicker Staff, PolitickerNJ Read more
By Bradford Richardson
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) says real education reform is impossible as long as teachers unions remain a powerful force for the status quo.
“The single most destructive force for public education in this country is the teachers union,” Christie said at a Jack Kemp Foundation panel discussion in Columbia, S.C., on Saturday. “It is the single most destructive force.”
The Republican presidential candidate called the labor groups an “absolute subsidiary of the Democratic Party.”
“In New Jersey alone, the teachers union has 200,000 members, and they collect mandatory dues of $730 per person per year,” he said. “That’s $140 million that the teachers union just in New Jersey collects a year, and they pay nothing toward teacher salary, teacher pension or teachers healthcare.
“It’s a $140 million political slush fund to be able to reward their friends and punish their enemies,” he added. “Now imagine that kind of force and it’s replicated in state after state after state in this country.”
Christie said Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton is “bought and paid for” by the unions. Clinton has been endorsed by the National Education Association, the largest labor union in the nation.
The governor also called the current mode of education “obsolete” and said schools need to incorporate innovative technologies into the classroom.
JANUARY 8, 2016, 1:33 PM LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 2016, 9:12 AM
BY JOHN BRENNAN AND JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD
Governor Christie on Friday waded into an increasingly inflammatory battle over how to extend casino gambling to North Jersey, siding with state Senate President Steven Sweeney in his escalating war of words with Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto.
Christie, who has been campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination, blamed “infighting” between the two legislative leaders, both of whom are Democrats, for the fact that a push for a statewide referendum on the matter appears to have stalled in the waning days of the legislative session, which ends Tuesday.
The governor endorsed Sweeney’s proposal, which would restrict bidding for two North Jersey casino licenses to companies with a majority interest in an Atlantic City casino. Christie echoed the assertion that Sweeney made earlier in the day that Prieto’s competing plan, which would allow one of the licenses to be issued to a newcomer, does not have enough support to clear the Assembly before the new session starts.
JANUARY 7, 2016 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 2016, 6:48 AM
BY PAUL BERGER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
When Governor Christie, citing potential cost overruns, scuttled an $8.9 billion tunnel project in 2010, he set in motion a string of moves by local, state and federal officials that have resulted in a proposal for a much larger, federally driven project to build new rail tunnels under the Hudson River that by some estimates could cost $20 billion.
Planning for the new tunnels, dubbed Gateway, is expected to ramp up this year as the Port Authority takes the reins of what could be the largest public works project in the nation. And it joins new efforts – such as one announced Wednesday by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to spend $3 billion to overhaul New York Penn Station — to rebuild crumbling infrastructure in the region.
Like its predecessor, Gateway plans to deliver rail tunnels that would double the train capacity into New York City. And Gateway, like the canceled Access to the Region’s Core project, also envisions a new set of tracks that bypass Secaucus Junction, creating a one-seat ride from North Jersey into Manhattan.
But Gateway is a much broader project that also includes critical repairs to the existing train tunnels, upgrades and replacements of several bridges along Amtrak’s heavily traveled Northeast Corridor line, and miles of additional tracks between Newark and New York City.
With any luck, it should be completed in the next 20 years.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/new-hudson-rail-tunnel-project-would-dwarf-initial-plan-1.1486094
