GUEST: Christie aims at unions
By Becca Fields
A budget crisis—that’s what the main-stream media are calling it. A shortfall of $800 million in THIS year’s state budget that has to be resolved by June 30, a matter of weeks. But the real crisis isn’t simply a collection of numbers on a ledger book. The real crisis is the opportunity this creates for Gov. Chris Christie’s—an opportunity for a dangerous attack on public employee unions.
Just as he did four years ago—with the help of cynical Democratic legislators—Christie will try to make unions and their members bear the brunt of the political maneuverings to try to fill that hole when most of the money available this year has been spent—or already cut to fill a hole discovered in February.
Christie cites the changes to federal government tax rates for the very wealthy resulting in much lower revenue for New Jersey than he estimated a year ago. That is the excuse for this latest revenue shortfall, but ultimately we know he will blame the costs of pensions and benefits of our public sector employees.
Christie owns responsibility for this crisis. He consistently overestimated revenues for every budget he proposed since taking office. He refuses to consider rational revenue increases. Already this year, he acknowledged a $700 million “adjustment” in revenues – that was in addition to the new shortfall of $800 million. And the changed federal tax collection that resulted in a windfall last year as people paid early would GUEST: Christie aims at unions | Bob Braun's Ledger: