Christie: 'Massive' Tax Increase Possible Without Reform

Gov. Chris Christie proposed his 2017 budget to the state Legislature Tuesday, saying the state could be facing “massive” tax increases - or other debilitating problems - if it doesn’t reform public employee and retiree health costs.

The $34.8 billion budget pushes forward a non-partisan commission’s plan to save $2 billion on government worker health benefits and use it to save the pension system.

“Failure to do this will raise taxes, cut municipal aid, hurt students and the disabled, and take aid from our seniors,” he told both branches of the Legislature.

For the state to meet its pension obligations, Christie said, the budget calls for $250 million in savings from public employee and retiree health costs.

Absent any reforms, he said, state costs for government worker and retiree health insurance would increase by $487 million, and at a comparable rate moving forward.

Left unchecked, he said, would ”kill” the state’s ability to cover the cost of essential services such as “protecting our most vulnerable, making investments in our schools and infrastructure, attracting business and, for those who care about the future viability of their pensions, our ability to make adequate payments.”

“Or, it will require massive tax increases our citizens cannot sustain,” he said.

The address comes as his favorability rating hit a new low in a Rutgers-Eagleton Poll released just before the speech.

The governor, who made his first public appearance since leaving the presidential race, now has a 29 percent favorability rating - the lowest for any sitting governor in nearly 25 years.

While favorable ratings have declined over the past two months, Christie’s unfavorable rating holds steady at its all-time high of 59 percent. A solid majority of New Jersey voters have consistently had an unfavorable impression of the governor in every poll since August 2015, according to a Rutgers-Eagleton press release.

Christie’s overall job approval likewise remains at its all-time low of 33 percent; 61 percent disapprove, also virtually unchanged since December.

“After six months on the campaign trail and a year of being mostly out of state, Governor Christie is not being welcomed by New Jerseyans with open arms – in fact, quite the opposite,” said Ashley Koning, assistant director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling (ECPIP) at Rutgers University.