UPDATE: Christie adopts

Corzine budget cuts, and
then some

By ANGELA DELLI SANTI • The Associated Press
• February 15, 2010

TRENTON — While New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie
criticized his predecessor last week for using "the
same worn-out tricks'' to cobble together a state
budget, he readily adopted hundreds of millions in
spending cuts former Gov. Jon S. Corzine had
proposed to close a gap in the current spending
plan.

Christie called a joint session of the Legislature to
announce his plan for closing a midyear budget gap
he says would have reached $2.2 billion by the end
of the fiscal year on June 30. It includes cutting
$1.6 billion in state aid to school districts, colleges
and universities, hospitals, NJ Transit and more. He
pulled back funds from some 375 programs in all.

The biggest chunk of savings — $475 million — will
be achieved by forcing school districts to use their
excess budget surpluses in place of state aid
payments. Corzine proposed saving $300 million
the same way, as he looked to reconcile a smaller
budget imbalance on his way out the door.

Christie's plan goes further because it pares all
district surpluses greater than 2 percent; Corzine
would have allowed districts to keep 25 percent of
the excess. Also, Christie achieved the savings
instantly by signing an executive order. Corzine's
proposal called for legislative action, but no bill
was introduced before his term ended on Jan. 19.

Corzine spokesman Josh Zeitz said Christie
announced 219 of the same line-item spending cuts
and freezes that Corzine had identified four weeks
ago. Zeitz said the former governor had already
targeted nearly half of the $2 billion in "dramatic''
cuts Christie announced.

"I guess they only count if you announce them on
television,'' Zeitz said. "Compare that sum to the
$4.4 billion that Corzine cut in midyear in (fiscal
year) 2009 — without fanfare — and Christie is
nothing but a grandstander.''

A Monmouth University political scientist had a
different take.

"Because he's frozen just about everything that's in
his purview to freeze, he is showing he is dealing
with the situation he was handed by taking control
of it,'' said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth
University Polling Institute. "The public opinion is
going to be changeable on this, but for right now
he's playing it exactly right. He's doing the job he
was sent to Trenton to do.''


Murray said Christie and Corzine may both have
looked to cut school aid because it is one of the few
large unspent accounts remaining more than seven
months into the budget year.

Christie told the Legislature that only $14 billion of
the state's $29 billion budget was unspent. Of that
amount, just $6 billion was not legally obligated or
otherwise untouchable.

Christie and Corzine have been squabbling over the
actual size of the budget shortfall since the
Republican Christie succeeded Democrat Corzine.
Zeitz maintains that the fiscal gap for the year would
have been closer to $739 million and says Christie
is trying to make New Jersey's fiscal problems seem
more dire that they are.

Murray said Christie's cuts are deeper than Corzine's
because the new governor's revenue projections are
more pessimistic than his predecessor's.

Christie's staff did not return e-mail messages
seeking comment. Friday was a furlough day for
state workers and Monday was a holiday. State
government was shut for the four-day weekend.