The Christie town hall meeting in Warren County was like most other Christie town hall meetings of late, with two exceptions. First, he signed a bill today, designating nearby Route 31 the Tri County Purple Heart Memorial Highway. The purple heart award, he told his audience, was created by George Washington in 1782.
Second, he came out strongly in support of ballot question No. 2, which asks voters to amend the constitution so that judges contribute a lot more money toward their pensions.
“The secretary working at the Statehouse, she’s paying more. The guy working in the public works department in your county, he’s paying more. But not the judges. Heaven forbid, not the angels in the black robes,” Christie said. “So question No. 2 on the ballot in 12 days is, do you think the judges should pay their fair share? I’m telling you something. You people don’t vote yes, I am hunting you all down personally.”
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Christie went after the state Supreme Court for the way it orders school aid to be allocated.
“I’m getting ready to nominate two new people to the Supreme Court very soon, and when I do, you all need to get engaged,” he said. “We collect $11 billion in income tax; $8.8 billion of it goes to the school districts, not controlled by me, not controlled by the legislature, controlled by those people.”
And he went after Democratic legislators for blocking a tax cut while introducing bills that spend money frivolously in the governor’s view.
“Sixty-six million dollars to pay to towns who are overburdened by cemeteries,” Christie said. “Only the Democrats could figure out a way to make even the dead a burden on New Jersey taxpayers.”
Other questions dealt with school choice, prevailing wage laws, state procurement rules. There was nothing about the presidential race here today, nothing about the storm that could be barreling down on this state in a few days.
Chief Political Correspondent Michael Aron reports from Washington Township in Warren County.