One shot gimmicks and the easy way out

by: Jason Springer

Sat Mar 20, 2010 at 05:11:20 PM EDT

Patrick Murray is curious about Governor's talk of ending one shot gimmicks, while he continues to use them:

As a side note, is anyone else scratching their heads over the continued underfunding of our current pension obligation in Christie's "no gimmicks" budget? I know he's pushing hard for pension reforms, but when does underfunding current annual obligations cease to be a "one shot" to balance the budget? Just curious.

Just another promise broken for the Governor, but it's ok because he made those when he was a candidate. Maybe he thinks he can't be held responsible for things he said on the campaign trail. He says he is making the tough choices, but John Bury at NJ.com says he's taking the easy way out by not making a payment into the pension fund and ensuring further problems:

Chris Christie took the coward's way out, a well worn path trodden by every New Jersey governor in recent memory, by punting.
Offering the feeble excuse that "our pension system must be reformed before we can or should fund a broken, out-of-control system" Christie assured that it will remain broken and careen more out of control under his watch.

Not only is he skipping the payment, but he's continuing to include the number in his structural deficit calculation even though there is no such appropriation. It's ok though, because he's doing that with the property tax rebates as well to mislead the public into thinking a pretty bad problem is that much worse. Just another day in the Christie administration.

Jason Springer :: One shot gimmicks and the easy way out

Tags: pension, Chris Christie, pension fund, broken promise, one shot gimmick, (All Tags)

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One shot gimmicks and the easy way out | 2 comments

you want to talk about a gimmick... (0.00 / 0)

now it is small ($65 million) but he is counting on sales tax from repealing Bergen County's blue laws - something that is (1) out of his hands, (2) not going to happen and (3) somehow in his budget, despite Bergen County Executive, Rutherford Mayor (a republican) and many others saying this is not going to happen.

Scott Garrett - on the wrong side of, well, everything.

by: Adam L @ Sun Mar 21, 2010 at 03:10:59 AM UTC

Bergen County blue laws (0.00 / 0)

While I think the Bergen County blue laws are silly (and unconstitutional), I don't see how their repeal would generate more income. The people there are going to spend the money anyway - either in another county or on another day. So the sales tax collected would be the same.

Blog: http://www.deciminyan.org

by: deciminyan @ Sun Mar 21, 2010 at 11:15:28 AM UTC

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