Christie's town hall bluster is not a real plan

Christie's town hall bluster is not a real plan
By Star-Ledger Editorial Board
on July 02, 2014

Gov. Chris Christie is promising a plan that would allow the state to cut spending on health care and pensions, as he did in 2011 when he signed a bipartisan deal.

We are eager to hear the details, given the state’s deepening fiscal crisis. But this has all the markings of a pointless political exercise intended to impress his fellow Republicans before the 2016 presidential race.

Why would Democrats agree to another deal when Christie just broke the central promise of the 2011 reform? Public workers did their part by chipping in more and getting back less. Christie just stabbed them in the back by reneging on his part of the bargain when he shorted the pension funds by a whopping $2.4 billion over two years.

Christie has also stiff-armed Democrats on other budget items, like the "millionaires tax." It has been two years since Trenton struck a big bipartisan deal, the reorganization of the state’s public universities.

Somehow, a governor who was once a national cheerleader for compromise and bipartisan cooperation has morphed into a more typical politician who is preaching to his own choir.

If the governor is serious about making another round of cuts to public workers, he’ll need to come up with a strategy to make a deal. Pounding on public workers at town hall meetings might be fun for him, but it gets the state nowhere.

If the governor is serious about making another round of cuts to public workers, he'll need to come up with a strategy to make a deal.
Shorting the pension fund today means that the bill next year will be even larger. That’s the key reason Wall Street keeps lowering the state’s credit rating, which is the third worst in the nation and almost certain to take another whack soon.

It is also wildly unfair to retirees. The 2011 reform froze their payments, the single largest source of savings in the reform. It was supposed to be temporary, with cost-of-living benefits restored once the funds were in better health. Christie’s broken promise means that day may never come.

So where is the deal Christie wants to strike? Reasonable people in both parties see the need for both spending cuts and tax increases. The governor should at least appoint a bipartisan commission to examine the options.

Because posturing at town hall meetings is not going to get the job done.