The governor was in Long Branch this morning at a groundbreaking for a new state-financed elementary school. He also opened himself up to press questions for a half hour, several of which dealt with the state’s troubled fiscal picture.
We asked why last Friday he conditionally vetoed a bill passed in June that would require his administration to make monthly revenue reports public — something he already is required to do by his own executive order of two years ago.
“Cause when they play political games, that’s what they’re gonna get in return, and that’s all they’re doing, Michael, and that circus that Vincent Prieto put on last Wednesday, he should be ashamed himself,” Gov. Chris Christie said. “They know full well that revenue numbers aren’t final until they’re audited, and we’ll come out with our audited numbers in December or January, whenever they’re ready.”
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He was referring to last Wednesday’s Assembly Budget Committee hearing, where Democrats pressed Office of Legislative Services expert David Rosen.
“Even Dr. Rosen, who I don’t agree with on much, as you know, said at the hearing last week that nothing that he’s written was meant to push the panic button about anything,” Christie said. “Yet you have these doom and gloom Democrats down there who just for their own political purposes want to continue to tell people that what they’re seeing in New Jersey about the state coming back and doing better is not what they should believe.”
He said the rise in the state unemployment rate can be explained by a flawed methodology, said Standard & Poor’s is wrong to give the state a negative outlook — something Moody’s and Fitch haven’t done — and dismissed reports of a July-August revenue shortfall of $100 million.
“A hundred million on a $31.7 billion budget? Are you kidding? Two months of $100 million is not statistically significant. And that’s why this obsession of month-to-month looking at the revenue numbers is ridiculous,” Christie said.
On the presidential race, he said Mitt Romney has plenty of time to regain traction. “He had a bad week. The guy’s been campaigning for president for six years. He had a bad week. We’ve all had a bad week at times,” Christie said. “We want our entire career judged on one bad week? I don’t think so.”
On why he campaigned last week for right-wing Iowa Congressman Steve King, Christie said, “He’s a friend, and I agree with him more than I disagree with him.”
In 2009, Christie was grilled by a House subcommittee in Washington. Christie reminded us today it was Steve King who sprang to his defense back then.
Chief Political Correspondent Michael Aron reports.