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http://www.northjersey.com/news/Chri...tax_issue.html

For PaulieC...something interesting about Governor Christie

Christie says he'll hammer Democrats all summer on tax issue

Governor Christie struck a conciliatory tone with Democrats on Monday and called for them to join him in the middle of the aisle and vote for a tax cut. On Tuesday he pledged to pummel them so hard for not cutting taxes that his speech the day before would “look like the good old days.”

“After I spend a couple of months on this, the people of this state are going to be outraged at their hypocrisy,” Christie said during a meeting with The Record’s editorial board Tuesday.

The Republican governor took time in his speech to highlight his accomplishments with the Democrats who control both the Senate and Assembly.

Among those accomplishments is what Christie calls his crowning achievement this year — pushing through the restructuring of higher education, sending the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey’s medical, nursing and dental schools to Rutgers University and the School of Osteopathic Medicine to Rowan University.

Even though the final product is very different from his initial proposal — Rowan is no longer taking over the Rutgers-Camden campus — Christie said he’s happy with what he got.

“At the end of the day what I wanted was a stronger Rutgers in New Brunswick, a stronger Rutgers in Camden or higher education institution in Camden, however it took form, and I wanted to get rid of UMDNJ, because it was an abject failure,” Christie said. “It seems that I checked all three boxes.”

Christie worked with Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and negotiated that plan with Demo¬crats, reaching an agreement after several closed-door negotiation sessions. Christie says he was even willing to give up his own 10 percent across-the-board income tax cut, which would be phased in over four years, in favor of Sweeney’s tax plan.

But Sweeney, who appeared on two radio shows Tuesday, said he proposed his 10 percent income tax credit, which is tied to property taxes and capped at incomes less than $400,000, before state revenue figures came in much lower than anticipated.

Christie said he’s confident that state tax collections will pick up, especially with companies on Wall Street doling out bonuses at the end of the year. But while the Democrats want to wait until January to decide whether they can deliver tax relief, Christie thinks the latest revenue figures will show the funds are available now.

“We’ll see what happens in June,” he said. “I’m relatively optimistic. But, you know, they said we’re not going to hit our numbers in June. If we hit our numbers in June, maybe it’s time for them to shut up.”

But Sweeney said that Democrats are being responsible.

“He anticipates that we’re fine, and don’t worry about the numbers,” Sweeney said on “The Governor David Paterson Show” on WOR-710AM. “That’s not true. We have to worry about the numbers.”

Christie said he plans to continue hammering them all summer, traveling the state and holding town hall events featuring a clock that Christie says will count how many days the Democrats are holding tax relief hostage.

That pledge is a contrast to his speech on Monday, when Christie implored legislators to not act like politicians in Washington, who he said, “talk at one another, not to one another.

“Here in New Jersey we aspire to talk to each other; we aspire to like the people we work with across the aisle; we aspire to take the time to figure out how to reach a place of compromise to improve the lives of all of our citizens,” he said.

But on Tuesday, he said the Demo¬crats were hypocritical for crafting a spending plan based on his revenue figures, while refusing to grant what he calls an immediate tax cut.

Sweeney said Democrats put the money in surplus and will deliver a tax cut, if the funds are there.

“We put money in the budget and I’ve told people I’m cheering on these revenue projections, and I’m hoping they happen for one reason, that means people have gone back to work,” he said on NJ 101.5FM.

And he said there is no need for Christie’s “political theater.” Because the governor’s tax cut wouldn’t go into effect until residents file their income taxes in April, there is time for Demo¬crats to vote on it if there’s revenue to support it.

“A real tax cut — and that’s what we want — creates jobs when it’s real,” Sweeney said on WOR. “What we’re saying is we’ve accepted his numbers but we’re seeing the economy improve not in the way it needs to in this state. New Jersey’s unemployment is high.”

Although Christie hasn’t decided whether he’ll seek another term, he expressed doubt that the Democrats would grant the tax relief next year, when he is up for reelection.

“You think the Democrats, with the number of Democrats in the Legislature who want to run for governor, are going to give the incumbent governor a tax cut in the January of his election year?” he said.

Email: hayes@northjersey.com