MORE REASONS TO NOT SUPPORT CHRIS CHRISTIE FOR PRESIDENT

 

Chris Christie is a perfect example of how “not” to run a state government.

 

If the New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie, seriously goes after the US presidency, the American voting public better take a closer look at how he has been running his own state.  They will then quickly see that with a friend like Christie, who needs an enemy?

First, just look at the latest issue of his recently agreed legal settlement with Exxon Mobil.

For the last ten years, New Jersey had been in a legal battle with Exxon Mobil over their contamination of, and the state’s loss of the use of, over 1,500 acres of public land in northern New Jersey.  Exxon Mobil was found liable, but the damages and cleanup costs had yet to be determined.  The estimated total cost was $8.9 billion, and the judge was expected to rule soon on the final number.

But, Governor Christie had recently received very large donations from Exxon Mobil to the Republican Governors Association, of which Christie is the Chairman.  Since he swore to balance the state’s budget without raising taxes, he also needed lots of quick revenue for adding to the state coffers.

So, to get some state revenue and this issue settled right away, he instructed his state’s lawyers to settle the case with Exxon Mobil ASAP.  They quickly did so, but for a paltry, $225 million.  That’s about 2½ cents-on-the-dollar.  In addition, due to some new language that the Christie administration had snuck into the state budget, the first $50 million of any environmental settlement will go toward the environmental programs.  All the monies above that amount will be used to fill the voids in the state’s General Fund. 

 

Ta-Da, now that’s how one balances a state’s budget without raising taxes.

As it turns out, another New Jersey case was settled this very same way last year.  As the New Jersey Sierra Club local director, Jeff Tittel put it, “dirty deeds, done dirt cheap.”

Yes, Christie has also reduce corporate taxes by hundreds of millions of dollars annually, primarily by accounting tricks and raiding the state’s rainy-day funds and other short-sighted gimmicks. He basically sells off the state’s future to preserve his personal fictional story of being “fiscally responsible”.  In other words, Christie is getting those dollars now for the state, where the problems he’s causing will end up being those of future New Jersey governors.

From my point-of-view, should he actually run and become the next US president, this is all just another thumb-nail example of how Christie would probably try to handle the nation’s federal fiscal challenges.

Oh, and it doesn’t stop here!

In a recent Washington Post article, it was made clear about some of the other short-term fixes that Christie has done to his state.

Yes, he got hit hard with the “Bridgegate” debacle over the traffic issues on the George Washington Bridge.  But the article stated, “Christie halted construction of a federally subsidized train tunnel to New York — which would have raised property values and eased commutes for his constituents — so that he could instead divert the state’s portion of the funding to pay for bridge and road repairs without raising gas taxes. If Christie indeed wanted to cause “traffic problems in Fort Lee,” as a top aide wrote in a notorious e-mail, the tunnel cancellation was a much more enduring way to achieve this.  He has also axed state funding for family planning, even though such spending prevents much larger costs later on, when the state must help foot the bill for poor women’s unplanned pregnancies.”

No, Christie isn’t the only Republican governor to pull these fiscal shenanigans.  Many conservative governors, such as Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Rick Snyder of Michigan, have sold off valuable assets at bargain prices for solving short-term financial issues.  But if Christie continues his so called “fiscal moves”, he will leave New Jersey as a major fiscal wreck after he is long gone.

Future voters beware.  Things in New jersey really are as bad as they seem.

Copyright G.Ater  2015