"...After meeting privately with a few close aides, the governor-elect and mayor told reporters they planned to work together on economic, homeland security and education issues. Bloomberg, who was elected for a third term in November, has agreed to visit a charter school in Jersey City within the next month, Christie said..."

More students in N.J. get free, reduced-priced lunches in recession

By The Associated Press

December 13, 2009, 12:19PM

HACKENSACK — More students in New Jersey, almost 417,000, are getting free or reduced-price lunches as parents find themselves on unemployment in the recession.

The Record of Bergen County found 20,061 Bergen County students got free and reduced-price lunches last year. That was a 17 percent rise in three years.

The number of children receiving free or reduced-price school meals has increased in New Jersey's schools as well.

Some 41,176 students in Passaic County received them, a 15 percent increase over the same period.

The program has grown in traditionally middle-class towns as Clifton, Bergenfield and Teaneck, where about one-third of the children get subsidized lunch this year.

Clifton saw one of the biggest increases in requests. This year, 37 percent of Clifton students got lunch benefits, up from 21 percent from four years ago.

A family of four must have an income less than $28,665 to qualify for free lunches. For reduced-price lunch, that household must make less than $40,793.

Experts cited various reasons for the increase. The U.S. Food and Nutrition Service recently pushed states so that children who get food stamps are automatically entitled to free lunch.

Second, New Jersey's new school funding formula uses the number of children on free lunch as a trigger for school aid tied to disadvantaged students.

The federal government paid $169 million to New Jersey school districts and the state contributed $8.3 million.

N.J. Gov.-elect Christie, N.Y.C. Mayor Bloomberg agree on recession budgeting

By Claire Heininger/Statehouse Bureau

December 10, 2009, 5:02PM

NEW YORK -- With the notable exception of gay marriage, Gov.-elect Chris Christie and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg found common ground today as the two men met for the first time.

Christie said he shares the mayor's approach to budgeting in a recession: preserving core services and cutting elsewhere without raising taxes.

Christie said he wants to avoid laying off unionized state workers through "vigorous collective bargaining," but warned that in light of high private sector unemployment, public employees cannot expect a planned 7 percent salary increase for the coming fiscal year.

"Who do they think is paying for this?" Christie said during a joint press conference at City Hall. "I'm not looking to lay off state workers, but what I am willing to do is to have them come to the table understanding the reality of the economic situation the state is in."

Christie declined to give other specifics on his plans to close an estimated $8 billion budget deficit.

After meeting privately with a few close aides, the governor-elect and mayor told reporters they planned to work together on economic, homeland security and education issues. Bloomberg, who was elected for a third term in November, has agreed to visit a charter school in Jersey City within the next month, Christie said.

"We are in this together," Bloomberg said. "We really do depend on New Jersey, and they on us."

Christie said he admired Bloomberg's brash political style.

"In some respects, our leadership styles are similar. I don't think you have to wonder what's on the mayor's mind," Christie said. "There will be no smoke signals across the Hudson River either way."

There were a few awkward moments over same-sex marriage. Christie opposes an ongoing effort to legalize gay marriage in New Jersey, while Bloomberg is an outspoken supporter of same-sex unions.

Christie reiterated that he opposes same-sex marriage and said he has reminded Republican lawmakers of where he stands.

"What I can do as governor-elect is just remind them what my position is, and beyond that, it's ultimately the decision of 120 people in the New Jersey State Legislature that are there between now and Jan. 12," Christie said, referring to the end of the lame-duck legislative session.

Asked if Christie was wrong on the issue, Bloomberg did not answer directly. He quoted Christie, saying he'd made his own -- opposite -- position "very clear."

"I do not think it's the government's business. I think people should be allowed to marry whoever they want," the mayor said. "I just don't think the government should be involved in those kinds of personal decisions."

Full Star-Ledger coverage of the Gay Marriage Debate in New Jersey

Bloomberg said he campaigned for legalization of same-sex marriage in the New York state Senate and was "disappointed" the bill there failed. He said there were at least three, "probably four Republican votes that if it had been close, probably would have been voted to pass the bill." But it never got close enough, he said.

Christie also reiterated that he will scrutinize all new state borrowing -- and said that stance doesn't contradict with signing off on New Jersey's sale of more than $1.2 billion in bonds to pay for transportation projects earlier this week.

Christie called the transportation debt "Corzine borrowing," in reference to the projects begun under his predecessor, Gov. Jon Corzine.

Christie said it's not "prudent" to "stop transportation projects in the middle."

"This is the governor's decision to make. I'm not the governor yet," he said. "The governor asked me if I would object to him paying the bills."

Christie said he also did not make other decisions that the Corzine administration has said were his, including withholding arts grants and other discretionary funding and declining to apply for federal education funding.

"As far as I can tell, he's still the governor," Christie said.

Since his victory, Christie has also met with Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and expects to meet with New York Gov. David Paterson this month.