Christie discusses state budget, economy

This article is an online exclusive. The Daily Princetonian will resume regular publication on Sept. 15. Visit the website throughout the summer for updates.

Arguing that he made the tough choices needed to set New Jersey on the road to economic growth, Gov. Chris Christie defended his economic record before an audience of roughly 300 at a lecture in McCosh Hall on Friday. He was invited to speak by the Center for Economic Policy Studies.

The Republican governor, an ex officio member of the University’s Board of Trustees, passed a budget last June that cut state spending by 2.2 percent and triggered a firestorm of protest from unions and advocacy groups, which argued that the governor should raise taxes to help close the state’s $10.7 billion budget deficit. Christie also proposed a budget in February that held spending flat, calling the previous year’s cuts the “new normal.”

During his address on Friday, Christie said that the current economic situation requires the government to rein in spending, not to levy more taxes.

“Logic tells me that we’ve kind of maxed out the tax side of this equation and we now have to deal with discipline again and deal with saying no,” Christie said, adding that it was “time for a true austerity budget.”

Christie, who took office last January, said he felt that he had to undo the budgetary damage he inherited from previous governors.

“I feel as if I was invited to dinner by all the former governors and had a great dinner ... and then right at the end of the evening, all seven of them got up and left to go to the bathroom and they never came back, and I was the one left with the bill,” Christie said.

Christie added that he stood by his decision to refrain from increasing taxes, citing a conversation with Steve Forbes ’70, who reportedly told Christie that “money goes where it can get larger and stays where it is treated well.” Christie said he tried to make the business and tax climate predictable so that money could stay in New Jersey.

Support nonprofit student journalism. Donate to the ‘Prince.’ Donate now »

“What people in business and the citizens of our state have been yearning for, more than anything else, is the sense of certainty,” he said. “Business people and citizens can plan for anything if they know it is coming.”

Christie said that, despite the political attacks that have followed his budget cutbacks, he took ownership of the budget and was willing to accept responsibility for it.

“It is only the governor who can act with the singular responsibility, that looks at the broad statewide picture and not at the parochial interests of a particular legislator,” Christie said. “It was my budget that I presented. And I was taking responsibility for cuts in every department in state government ... and that’s the way it goes when you’re the governor.”

Though he felt pressured by special interest groups, he explained, Christie said he resisted their influence so he could reduce the size of the government. He also said he liked the label “The Disrupter,” which headlined a profile of him in The New York Times Magazine.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

“This is all, in the end, about fiscal discipline,” Christie explained. “It’s about being able to say no. It’s about being able to sustain the political attacks that come when you say no.”

Christie also emphasized that he was following the public’s will.

“If you want sunshine and candygrams, you can have them,” he added. “But they come at an enormous cost. And the cost may not be paid by you, but the cost may be paid by your children ... I think the people want someone to say no.”

Economics professor Alan Blinder ’67, who serves as co-director of the Center for Economic Policy Studies, said after the lecture that he thought the governor “has a point.”

“I agree with the basic premise that we had a bloated budget in New Jersey,” Blinder said. “He was quite right that we pay a lot of taxes, and it’s not obvious that we get value for the money compared to other states.”

President Shirley Tilghman, who introduced Christie and called him a “prominent voice in national politics, to say nothing of YouTube,” said after the talk that she particularly enjoyed the governor’s response to an audience question about education reform.

“I was very impressed with his passion around the issue of education reform," Tilghman said. "It is clear he feels very strongly about it and it’s personal ... Anyone who has thought about it for longer than 10 seconds knows the status quo is unacceptable.”