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11-8-09 News of Note
Christie Victory Stalls Plans for N.J. Road Funds, Pensions - Bloomberg News, By Dunstan McNichol& T. Dopp....................... Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac headed for Christie transition team; Treachery among N.J. Democrats; Candidates take mystery vacations By The Auditor/The Star-Ledger

Christie Victory Stalls Plans for N.J. Road Funds, Pensions

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By Dunstan McNichol and Terrence Dopp

 

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Republican Chris Christie’s election as New Jersey Governor stymied plans by the Democratic Legislature to raise the fourth-lowest gasoline taxes in the U.S. to finance the state’s depleted highway trust fund.

The pending arrival of the first Republican governor in New Jersey since 1997 also has renewed hope among some Democratic lawmakers that they can overhaul the state’s pension system for public employees, which is underfunded by more than $34 billion.

Christie swept first-term Governor Jon Corzine, a former Goldman Sachs & Co. co-chairman, out of office Tuesday amid discontent over a recession that has left New Jersey, the 11th biggest state by population, with its highest unemployment rate in 32 years. He became the first Republican to win a statewide election in 12 years.

Democrats scaled back their plans for the legislation they will consider during the 76 days between now and Christie’s Jan. 19 inauguration, a legislative term called the “lame duck” session.

“A lot of things we’re just not going to do,” said Senate President Richard Codey, an Essex County Democrat who served as governor for a year after the resignation of former Governor James E. McGreevey in 2004.

Christie’s first act as governor will be to sign an executive order suspending all new state regulations for 90 days while his administration reviews their impact, he said.

Post-Election Priorities

Codey and Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts, a Camden County Democrat, met on Wednesday to map out their priorities for post- election sessions to begin near Nov. 23, Codey said. They decided to leave consideration of the gasoline-tax increase to Christie. They will only propose a vote on a bill to legalize gay marriage if there’s enough support to pass, a prospect that Codey said would be impossible if Christie convinces Republicans otherwise.

“What used to be certain to pass I think now has a lot of uncertainty about it,” said Sen. Ray Lesniak, a Union County Democrat who is sponsoring the gay marriage bill. “That’s the first and foremost issue that’s been impacted by this election.”

A strategy for generating new support for the Transportation Trust Fund, which borrows $1.6 billion a year to support highway and mass transit projects in New Jersey, has also been dropped from consideration, Codey said.

“I think we have to wait for the new governor,” said Codey. “We have to get direction from him. He’s the governor.”

Cordial Relationship

Christie, 47, a former U.S. Attorney whose office won criminal corruption convictions against four former members of the Senate he will now be negotiating with as governor, said he expects a cordial relationship with the Democratic controlled Legislature.

“I hope what we’ll see is a spirit of cooperation,” Christie said at his first post-election news conference, held at the Robert Treat Academy, a charter school in Newark, New Jersey’s largest city. He has tried to speak with Codey and Roberts, he said. David Samson, founding partner of the Roseland, New Jersey law firm Wolff & Samson and attorney general under McGreevey, a Democrat, will be chairman of the transition team, Christie said.

Democrats had proposed raising the state’s gasoline tax, currently 14.5 cents per-gallon, to replenish the trust fund for road repairs. After this year the fund will not be able to support new projects, because the $895 million in gasoline and toll revenue dedicated to it annually will be needed to pay debt service on $10 billion that has already been borrowed.

Bond Yields

The trust fund priced its latest bonds to yield between 6.23 percent and 6.4 percent for maturities of 23 years to 30 years on June 3 2009. At the time, the average yield on 25-year revenue bonds was 5.63 percent according to the Bond Buyer 25- Year Index.

During the campaign, Christie opposed raising the gasoline tax, saying he supports finding ways to pay for transportation projects without borrowing.

Lesniak and other lawmakers are in no rush to push matters such as expanding charter schools and overhauling public employee pensions, because they say the incoming governor’s priorities match the Legislature’s.

New Jersey’s pension fund was underfunded by $34 billion in June 2008, before last year’s stock market collapse drained another $15 billion from it. The $68.2 billion pension fund provides benefits for about 700,000 working and retired teachers and public sector workers.

Potential Budget Gap

Democratic lawmakers need to stay away from any proposal that would add to the state’s potential $8 billion budget gap, Republican Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr. said.

“The Legislature needs to be on notice the next two months are not a time of spending bills,” Kean said. “I think now is the time to start a transition toward a more responsible fiscal policy.”

The expansion of charter schools and education reform will be priorities for the new administration, Christie said. He will press for a cap on local government spending, and has directed his Lt. Governor Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Gaudagno, to report back within the first 90 days in office on unfunded state mandates that raise local government costs, he said.

“I like Chris as a person,” said State Sen. Stephen Sweeney, a Gloucester County Democrat who said he expects to unseat Codey as Senate president for the forthcoming legislative session. “We’re not going to be obstructionists. We won’t do that.”

Christie also pledged cooperation, to a point.

“Am I willing to fight?” he asked at his press conference. “Of course I am. But I don’t go into it with that assumption.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Dunstan McNichol in Trenton at dmcnichol@bloomberg.net.

 

Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac headed for Christie transition team; Treachery among N.J. Democrats; Candidates take mystery vacations

By The Auditor/The Star-Ledger

November 08, 2009, 5:19AM, When Gov. Jon Corzine came into office as a Wall Street whiz and criticized all the financial activity that preceeded him, John McCormac was none too pleased. McCormac, the state treasurer under Govs. Jim McGreevey and Richard Codey, and now mayor of Woodbridge, also disliked how Corzine dissed key Democratic mayors of large towns.

Now comes the payback. McCormac, whose township of 100,000 residents surprisingly voted Republican on Tuesday, wasted no time stepping out with GOP Gov.-elect Chris Christie on Thursday. And three sources tell The Auditor that McCormac is likely to be a part of Christie’s transition team.

The pair yukked it up during their tour of Woodbridge, with Christie at one point bumping into the mayor’s dentist and telling another passerby: "The mayor’s doing a great job." He heaped praise on McCormac at a news conference in a diner parking lot.

McCormac declined to speculate on why his town went for Christie, but said he is "willing to help" the new governor, "because I expect to get help from them, and whatever he needs me to do, I’m happy to do."

To add a layer of irony, McCormac was state treasurer when Democrats like Sen. Wayne Bryant talked of tapping into the "MAC" account — a play on McCormac’s name and ATMs — to get money for "Christmas tree" projects in their districts. Christie convicted Bryant as part of a probe into that process.

Asked to rate Corzine’s term as governor, McCormac stood silently, then asked assembled reporters, "Any questions?"

Treachery or paranoia?

When the dust settled after Election Day, it was clear that Corzine’s numbers were far worse than expected in some key Democratic areas. And Christie’s first post-election appearance at the Robert Treat Academy in Newark only further aroused suspicions that party bosses did not go all-out for Corzine.

Codey said the results demonstrate the treachery in some quarters of the state’s Democratic Party. He declined to name names, but he made his comments after it was announced that Christie’s first post-victory event would be held at the crown jewel of the empire controlled by Newark Democratic powerbroker Steve Adubato.

"Clearly there were people in our own party who didn’t want the governor to win," Codey said. "It’s sad but it’s true."

Adubato, a political foe of Codey who helped orchestrate the deal to replace him as Senate President with Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester), brushed off Codey’s suggestion that something was rotten in the county of Essex.

"How about the word paranoia?" Adubato told The Auditor. "Dick is a good man, a decent guy, but you know something? The senators, I told him, they’re not against you. It’s their self interest. They want change, that’s all."

As for Christie, Adubato commended him for showing up at Robert Treat. "He’s the governor. I love to have him here."

What about Disney World?

What do you do after you win — or lose — the most powerful governorship in the nation?

The loser went on vacation. The winner said "I’m goin’ to a Springsteen concert!"

After his post-election conversation with Corzine, Christie said the lame-duck governor "is getting ready to go on vacation. He sounded like a guy getting ready to go on vacation."

Corzine’s office would not tell The Auditor where he was headed or when he would be back.

Christie was not as shy. He planned to see another Bruce Springsteen concert (he’s been to more than 120) at Madison Square Garden — and maybe go backstage and test out his new clout to get the Boss to play his inaugural.

"I’ll go see ... if we can do something," Christie told The Auditor. "But they’re just coming off a very big tour that they’re going to end up in November, and they’ve been touring for over a year, so they may be really tired, too. They’re getting a little older. So we’ll see what happens."

Christie, who was critical of Corzine’s out-of-state travel during the campaign, said he would inform the press corps when he leaves New Jersey, but when he’s on vacation "I probably won’t say exactly where I’m going."

"But other than that, I don’t see any reason why not to be transparent about it," he said.