Gov. Chris Christie will use his executive powers on Thursday to freeze $1.6 billion in unspent money from the current state budget

"New Jersey has been steaming toward financial disaster for years," the Republican governor said in a speech to both houses of the Legislature. "The people elected us to end the talk and to act decisively. Today is the day for the complaining to end and for statesmanship to begin."

Along with eliminating programs "that sounded good in theory but failed in practice" across state departments, Christie is cutting $475 million in aid to school districts, $62 million in aid to colleges and $12 million to hospital charity care. He is pulling all funding from the department of Public Advocate, a longtime Republican target, and folding its functions into other parts of government. He is cutting state subsidies for NJ Transit, a move Christie said could lead to higher fares or reduced services but would force the agency to become "more efficient and effective."

Schools and colleges will be forced to spend their surpluses in place of the state aid, Christie said. His plan is an expanded version of one proposed by Corzine after he lost re-election but before he left office. Corzine said it would have required legislative approval to target only districts with an "excess surplus," but Christie said he can freeze the funds unilaterally.

The cuts -- which do not include municipal aid or unpaid furloughs of state workers -- are aimed at resolving a $2.2 billion deficit in the current budget created by falling revenue and increased costs for various programs. Corzine enacted some cuts before Christie took over. Christie says he was left with a $1.3 billion deficit.

“I take no joy in having to make these decisions. I know these judgments will affect fellow New Jerseyans and will hurt," Christie said. "This is not a happy moment. However, what choices do we have left?"

Democrats who control both houses of the Legislature immediately balked at Christie's move to unilaterally freeze school aid. They said school aid is directly tied to property taxes, and excess surplus should be returned to residents as property tax relief.

Senate budget chairman Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen) said cutting funding for schools was not the same as cutting state spending, and would simply raise property taxes.

"The governor had, for the last 9 months, he has talked about cutting government ... and his message resonated with the voters," Sarlo said. "You said you had a plan to cut government spending, so do it."

Sarlo said it was unfair to spring this on the schools in the middle of the school year.

"What are they going to do, tell the kids, 'Tomorrow don't go to Mrs. Smith's classroom, go to the other classroom?'" he said. "Who do you lay off?"

Christie said he knew the school aid plan would "not be popular" but stressed districts will still have "the resources to provide a thorough and efficient education to its students."

"Our solution does not take one penny from an approved school instructional budget," Christie said. "Not one dime out of the classroom."