With his presidential campaign behind him, Chris Christie’s back in the governor’s office and in full-bore budget mode, proposing a nearly $35 billion behemoth of a plan to fund state programs without raising a single tax. The big ticket items now in legislators’ laps are critical: funding both the Transportation Trust Fund and public worker pensions.

Leaders of both Democratically controlled houses were quick to quibble with Christie’s math, saying numbers can be misleading. But they say they’re ready to put partisanship aside and get to work.