Senate President Stephen Sweeney, the burly labor leader who is the Legislature’s top Democrat, strode into Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s office to hand-deliver two bills to the rookie Republican. With cameras rolling, Christie pulled out his pen and vetoed the measures, which would have increased taxes on millionaires and used the money to pay for property tax rebates for seniors and the disabled.
Sweeney vowed he would not give up the cause: “We’ll be back, governor.” Christie smiled and promised to stand firm.
But behind the scenes that May night, the fight was already over. Christie would keep Republicans unified against the tax, and Sweeney could not force it into the budget.
Christie had won the first major battle of his administration, leaving political opponents who control the Legislature with little ammunition to wage war against his austere budget. They would accept his terms — and his way of doing business.
“Someone said to me, ‘He killed you,’ ” Sweeney (D-Gloucester) later said in an interview. “I said, ‘No, he didn’t kill me. I was in a situation before we started that I couldn’t win, and I made the best of it.’ ”
The journey to the $29.4 billion budget Christie signed last week — and the intersecting drama over property taxes that continued Saturday — was a coming-of-age for Trenton’s new crop of leaders, Republican and Democrat, as they navigated a fiscal crisis and avoided a government shutdown.
Interviews with more than two dozen participants involved in the budget reveal a process peppered by rookie mistakes, unexpected twists and blunt talk in the Statehouse’s first year of fully divided government since Jim Florio was governor.
At one point, with victory in sight, the governor and his allies in the Legislature nearly lost their edge when key senators unexpectedly balked. One Republican lawmaker now concedes he considered quitting rather than voting for Christie’s budget.
At another point, Christie showed political agility that surprised his own staff by using his enemies in the teachers union as a foil to divert attention from school funding cuts.
Sweeney, stressing compromise within his own party, was impressed by Christie’s ability to make quick decisions and understand the wide-ranging powers of the New Jersey governorship. But Sweeney said he used what he learned from the budget talks to hang tough in the battle with Christie on how to cap property taxes.
Some officials interviewed for this story requested anonymity when discussing sensitive matters. They agreed it was a critical test for a new Republican governor elected in a solidly Democratic state.
“We have never seen the likes of Chris Christie before,” said Sen. Kevin O’Toole (R-Essex). “Everyone acknowledges we made mistakes. (But) the training wheels are off.”
(Read More: NJ.com)
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One Response
Stay firm Gov Christie, that’s why we elected you. If we wanted to continue paying some of the highest taxes in the country, we would have re-elected Corzine.
Keep fighting the fight against Gary Schaer who still doesn’t get it & he wants to continue raising our property taxes.