Chris Christie, NJ Governor, Get’s it Right – Budget That the U.S. Congress, Senate and the President should follow.

New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie gave the State’s budget address yesterday, taking New Jersey on the path to fiscal responsibility and stating his case for sacrifice, ending bloated pensions, and reducing every single department. In addition, Christie noted that the State of New Jersey can’t do it alone, that all towns and municipalities must do the same in order to get the job done. The video of his address is shown below – what can be seen is that Christie gets “it” – it would be the overburdened tax payer, the fact that taxing businesses to death results in job losses, the fact that there is plenty of fat to be trimmed from State Budgets, and that going bankrupt is not an option.

One has to consider that the Federal government has embarked upon a mad spending spree, the likes of which may be of historical proportions; legislation that has passed in the last year, has led to an insurmountable debt, that continues to grow, despite public outcry and political consequence. The Obama administration and like minded members of Congress are prepared to saddle Taxpayers with increased debt (meaning increased taxes across the board) in order to continue to legislate huge government reforms that include expanded bureaucracy. They are either punch drunk with power, ideologically challenged, or more to the point, plain stupid. In any event, those that are currently driving their Party members to vote for massive spending bills, including and specifically the Health Care Reform Bill, are dooming their Party to obscurity.

Christie gets “it” – the people will drive the “machine” as they no longer feel they are being fairly represented. Taxing the people to the point of penury has been the norm in New Jersey, as well as Massachusetts and California, to name a few more states on the brink of bankruptcy. Should a State budget fail, where will the money come from? Certainly not the Federal government which is currently stretched to the limit, adding trillion upon trillions of dollars to its own deficit – with a shrinking tax base (unemployment and bailing businesses) – sooner than later, with the present course, there will be nothing available to bail out these States that consistently depend on what they can get from “Washington”.

Will it be painful, yes, obviously, Christie makes that quite clear, but will it work to trim the fat, and make for a government that better serves the people – not those who would stand to represent or work for those who represent the people (list includes all State employees). Would the federal government have the courage and the intelligence to reverse a years’ worth of damage and get our house in order!
A full text of Christies speech is available here at The Trentonian. Some excerpts follow:

"Today, we begin doing what we promised we would do. The defenders of the status quo have already begun to yell and scream. They will try to demonize me. They will seek to divide us rather than unite us. But even they know in their hearts, if not yet in their minds it is time for a change.

Never forget, some of those shouting the loudest are the architects of the disaster we are now suffering. Do we really want another decade of economic failure? No, this spring it is time to clear away the underbrush to make room for growth.

So, today, we stop sweeping problems under the rug. We will not hide our problems until another day. And we are certainly not increasing the tax burden we place upon our people.

Today, we are taking necessary and decisive action to reduce state spending and reform state government. The problems we have hidden for twenty years are evident for all to see. The day of reckoning has arrived.

Some are saying, by their choice of policies, that we should descend further into debt and deficit, and risk driving more people out of the state with "temporary" tax increases that always turn out to be permanent.

I say we must face up to our responsibility:

— Cut government spending and end public union excesses that we can no longer afford;

— Reform government to cost less and operate better;

— And restore some sense of balance to the obligations we take on -- so that in the future they are both sensible and sustainable.

In short, we can forge a new course. One that brings spending in line with revenues. One that attacks our problems directly so they are shrinking, not growing. And most importantly, one that lays the groundwork for a better tomorrow.
Therefore, our solutions must set a historic new course directly away from the failed tax and spend policies of the past.

In recent years, we have allowed the problem to become bigger through a series of one-time gimmicks that have worsened our situation.

This year, for example, some state employees will be given an 11% salary increase, at a cost of $300 million to the taxpayers, while many New Jerseyans are lucky to even have a job. Incredible.

$700 million in one-time revenues came in from granting amnesty to tax cheats in another gimmick that was used to paper over problems. As usual, our government spent it all in one year, and built that much more spending into the budget for this coming year, with no way to pay for it now or in the future.

So too were federal stimulus funds for education irresponsibly spent all in one year -- and then simply added into the budget, with no way to pay for it this year.
One reason is that some people who could leave New Jersey have left the state. A recent study documented this trend. It found that from 2004 to 2008, New Jersey experienced a net outflow of wealth of $70 billion.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you tax them, they will leave.

In the past two and one-half years, New Jersey's unemployment rate has more than doubled from 4.4% to 9.9% --. From below the national average to above the national average.

There is a cost to all this taxing and spending. It is costing us jobs.

That price is unacceptable. I want to put New Jersey back to work.

So today, as promised, I am proposing a new course -- an entirely different course.

My budget proposes to review state government from top to bottom, and bring it under control. My budget proposes that we reform the way New Jersey government operates; and that we demand reform from the local governments we fund as well.
$2.9 billion of the budget gap was closed by reforming programs to make them better and more efficient than ever before.

Every single department of state government will be reduced: Agriculture, down 24%; Banking, down 12%; Children and families, down 4%; Community affairs, down 35%; Corrections, down 7%; Environmental protection, down 2%; Education, down 8%; Health and senior services, down 6%; Human services, down 4%; Labor, down 6%; Law and public safety, down 7%; Military affairs, down 2%; The public advocate, down 25%. State, transportation and treasury, down 11, 3, and 39%, respectively.

Every department of state government has been asked to tighten its belt. And we will demand local governments do the same. We cannot and should not make state government shrink only to let local government expand.

$3 billion in savings results from recognizing that our pension system must be reformed before we can or should fund a broken, out of control system. The pension system has been so generous that it has created a flood of liabilities. From 2002 to 2008, pension payments to retirees grew 56%, triple the inflation rate. Our benefits are too rich, most public employees contribute too little, and the taxpayers have had enough -- enough of out of control pensions to public sector unions while they are losing their own jobs, enough of losing their homes, and then being told by the union bosses that they must pick up the tab for rich pensions at the same time."

Finally, someone who, from a state that at times may have made the Massachusetts Legislature blush (not quite), stands up to those who would continue on a train to nowhere, and offers the path to freedom. Kudos to Chris Christie for looking out for his constituents. Would that the Federal Government and states such as Massachusetts, New York, California et al, would do the same, not in year, but now, as the time for action is never past – it is before us.

Christie challenges teachers union on benefits