It became clear which way the crowd leaned when Gov. Christie was asked about Obamacare and said he hasn’t decided yet exactly how the state will respond.
“If in fact the president’s reelected in three weeks, then we know that Obamacare’s going to be implemented and that we’re going to have to make these type of decisions with that as a backdrop,” Christie said. “If Gov. Romney’s elected in three weeks, then we know Obamacare will be repealed and then there has has to be a whole different set of choices coming after that.”
It was another overflow crowd for a Christie town hall meeting, this one in West Milford, way up near the New York state line in Passaic County, where the leaves were almost incandescent on this fall day.
The area is also the heart of the Highlands region, where property owners still resent the Highlands Preservation Act of 2003 that restricted development there, but failed to deliver on the promise of compensating owners for the diminished value of their land. The subject came up.
“If we can’t change the law, which the Democrats in the legislature don’t want to do, let’s implement the law and let’s start compensating people for the values that they’ve lost in their property,” Christie said.
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Christie spent nearly two hours in West Milford, taking questions and promoting what he calls his middle class reform agenda. He highlighted five issues:
- Closing the loophole in the 2 percent property tax cap that sees mayors to impose garbage fees and recreation fees;
- Ending payouts to public workers for unused sick leave;
- Promoting more sharing of services by penalizing towns for not sharing;
- Enacting new ethics reforms, like financial disclosure for legislators and one public paycheck per person; and
- Passing that tax cut the governor’s been pushing for since spring.
“Shouldn’t one public paycheck be enough for anybody?” Christie asked.
And as usual at these events, he spared no criticism of his Democratic rivals in the legislature.
“All they care about is spending your money,” Christie said. “That’s all they care about.”
The second Presidential debate is dominating headlines today. But the questions were mainly about local problems, personal problems and high taxes. After the town hall meeting, Gov. Christie was heading into New York City for a Mitt Romney fundraising luncheon.
Chief Political Correspondent Michael Aron reports from West Milford.