newjerseynewsroom.com

BY CARL GOLDEN

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

COMMENTARY

The bipartisan express that the Republican Governor and the Democratic legislative leadership were supposed to steer through unprecedented turbulent economic times careened off the rails when the Governor seized the controls himself and told the Democrats they could hang on for the ride if they chose.

Any semblance of the cooperation that was in the air less than a month ago when the Governor interrupted his inaugural address to clasp hands with Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver disappeared in a dazzling burst of gubernatorial rhetoric that left Democrats sputtering in frustration.

Simply put, Gov. Christie told legislators that he intended to invoke the Constitutional authority granted him to act to meet emergencies and use it to implement some $2 billion in either budget cuts or spending suspensions.

It was arguably the most sweeping exercise of executive power in modern New Jersey history.

Democrats cried that Christie had reneged on his very public commitment to involve them as partners in efforts to control spending and close multi-billion dollar gaps in the current budget as well as in the as yet unannounced 2011 fiscal year budget.

"So much for the handshake," Sweeney observed dryly following Christie's speech.

By the sheer audacity of his action, Christie fulfilled his campaign platform to grab hold of the entrenched Trenton mindset and shake it until fundamental and far reaching systemic changes were accepted.

Democrats complained they had received only the sketchiest of details in advance about what the Governor intended to say in his speech, but that's the kind of inside baseball argument that won't gain any traction with a taxpaying public which has demanded swift and bold steps to exert greater control over public spending.

The same is true of Democrat threats to challenge the Governor's emergency authority in the courts. For all the Democratic accusations of government by executive fiat or the imposition of fiscal martial law, bringing costly and protracted litigation pitting it against the Governor would be a grievous political error.

What Christie accomplished was to back the Democrats into a corner and force them defend the status quo — the status quo which so infuriated the state's taxpayers it led to the defeat of Gov. Jon Corzine.

The strategy is not without risk to Christie, however.

His planned cuts to New Jersey Transit may very well translate into fare increases and service reductions, while cuts in uncompensated care subsidies to hospitals — mostly in urban areas — will likely place even greater economic pressures on those facilities and the people they serve.

The largest of the spending cuts, some $475 million in aid to public education, will be used by local officials to justify property tax increases and shift the blame to the Governor.

Democrats have already started to fuel the property tax fire well aware that the local tax levy has for years been the hottest of the hot button issues. They've coupled their warnings about probable increases at the local level with criticism of the Governor's pledge to oppose any reinstatement of the state income tax surcharge on the wealthiest households — a thinly disguised launch of class warfare.