Chris Christie Reconsiders Killing Hudson River Tunnel Project

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced this week that his final decision was to kill the Hudson River Tunnel project, because...you know...the state and New Jersey-ites simply cannot afford it at this time. Oh but wait! The feds got to him and now he says he will reconsider, after meeting with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

Hudson River Tunnel Project

LaHood put some options on the table, don't cha know. No doubt, none of them assure New Jersey residents there will be no increased costs via the tunnel. Projected cost overruns from $2.3 billion to $5.3 billion are predicted, for the project known as ARC. Still yet, Christie said this:

"The fact that the ARC project is not financially viable and is expected to dramatically exceed its current budget remains unchanged," the governor said in a statement today.

"However, this afternoon Secretary LaHood presented several options to potentially salvage a trans Hudson tunnel project. At the secretary’s request, I’ve agreed to have executive director of NJ Transit Jim Weinstein and members from his team work with U.S. Department of Transportation staff to study those options over the next two weeks.” 

At a news conference this afternoon following the stunning development, U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) said the governor and the U.S. Department of Transportation will come to the negotiating table to revive the tunnel project.

Apparently, the Hudson River Tunnel will be home to two rail tunnels and will lead to a new train station in New York City, 200 feet below 34th Street between 6th and 8th Avenues.

Tunnel Station Below Penn Station under 34th Street

Increased bridge, tunnel and rail fares are funding the project. The groundbreaking ceremony was held in June 2009.

The feds (taxpayers everywhere, you...me) supplied $3 billion in federal funding earmarks. I do not live in New Jersey, but fellow blogger, Chris at WyBlog does. Read what he had to say about the tunnel cancellation, before this "reconsideration" was announced.

Chris Christie on Public Employees and Pensions: Thank Me in 10 Years Video

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie predicts public employees will thank him for being the governor "who saved their pensions.






Chris Christie on Public Employees and Their Pensions (video)
The Lonely Conservative has some short and pithy commentary
Posted by Maggie @ Maggie's Notebook

Chris Christie on Pension Reform and Tough Choices Video

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) says he wants a healthy pension system, but the system today must be repaired before that can happen. Christie says today's environment has people believing the government will "fix it" for them, but that isn't going to happen. Governor Christie - once again making the tough choices that Democrats refuse to touch. Here's the video:

Governor Chris Christie on How to Make the State's Pension System Healthy (video)

Chris Christie Matt Lauer : Chris Christie on Sacred Cows: Teachers Unions Cops

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie interviewed with Matt Lauer yesterday. When asked about the fallout of taking on the "Sacred Cows," teachers, unions and police, and if he feared them, Christie said "I don't think you can lead out of fear." Christie could have added, "because I'm doing the right thing," an unknown concept to the mainstream White House Propaganda Squad. This is a very interesting video interview, with a Governor who understands his job.

Christie quote:

The Teacher's Union in New Jersey has demanded 4% and 5% increases in a zero inflation world. They pay nothing in, the majority of them, for family health benefits, from the day they are hired, to the day they die.

Matt Lauer Interviews Gov. Chris Christie (video)

Chris Christie Privatizes New Jersey

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is proposing a massive privatization program for the state. A 57-page report gives the steps necessary to save $210 million a year by putting many services in the hands of private enterprise. Finally we have an outspoken public champion of the private sector.

Governor Chris Christie

Two thousand state employees may lose their jobs.

From North Jersey.com [my formatting]:

(1) State parks, psychiatric hospitals and even turnpike toll booths could also be run by private operators, 


(2) Preschool classrooms would no longer be built at public expense,

(3) state employees would pay for parking

(4) private vendors would dish out food, deliver health care and run education programs behind prison walls.

The most controversial loss to privatization is the state withdrawing entirely from the state vehicle inspections:

New Jersey would close its centralized car inspection lanes and motorists would pay for their own emissions tests....

But the car inspection proposal is sure to stir up controversy in a state with a tortured history of privatizing emissions testing.

Currently, New Jersey pays for the complete inspection process.

Chris Christie Budget Passed by Democrat Congress

New Governor Chris Christie's (R-NJ) budget, cutting "hundreds of millions of dollars" has been passed by the Democrat Congress.

Chris Christie

New Jersey was facing an $11 billion deficit:

The budget, approved by the Assembly early Tuesday morning and by the Senate hours earlier, is close to the one Gov. Chris Christie introduced in March amid some blunt talk about the state’s bleak finances. He said New Jersey was facing an $11 billion deficit and needed to cure its addiction to spending.

Democrats got just $74 million in programs and services restored to the budget out of roughly $400 million sought. They insisted that Republicans sponsor the budget bills, so the GOP would own the bare-bones budget.

Christie was scheduled to sign his first budget Tuesday afternoon. The fiscal year starts Thursday.

In the Senate, Democrats supplied the four votes needed for the budget to pass. All 17 Republicans supported the budget, and it was approved 21-19.

Family-planning is big with Democrats in New Jersey. Most of us plan our families without the help of the state, but:

One of the most unpopular budget cuts among Democrats wes the elimination of $7.5 million in state funding to 58 family planning centers. 

In the end, Dems got their $7.5 million. They did not get their one-year surcharge on millionaires.

The tough lesson is, most of us have to pay for our irresponsible spending eventually.

NJ Governor Christie Puts Reporter in His Place

This is too good to miss. NJ Governor Chris Christie is showing the kind of leadership the American people are looking for. Straightforward, honest and bold. You must watch this video. It is only two-and-a-half minutes. Christie puts a reporter firmly in his place.

Gov Christie calls S-L columnist thin-skinned for inquiring about his 'confrontational tone'

Governor Christie speaks my kind of English! (video)

Linked by Frugal Cafe Blog Zone - thank you!

Joe Coppola New Jersey Teacher Union Head Prays for Chris Christie's Demise

A New Jersey teacher walked out on a conversation with New Jersey governor, Chris Christie...or the Governor "showed her the door." What's the truth? No one seems to know. A New Jersey teacher, Joe Coppola, who is the head of the Bergen County Teachers Union, circulated this pithy memo:

Chris Christie

Dear Lord this year you have taken away my favorite actor, Patrick Swayze, my favorite actress, Farrah Fawcett, my favorite singer, Michael Jackson, and my favorite salesman, Billy Mays. I just wanted to let you know that Chris Christie is my favorite governor."

The story goes that Barbara Keshishian, the president of a state teacher's union, asked to rendevouz with Christie to offer an apology on behalf of Coppola, and was apparently asked to fire him. She refused. A spokesman said Keshishian does not have the authority to fire Coppola.

Governor Christie is not viewed in a favorable light by New Jersey School districts which will be seeing some cuts to their budgets because his predecessor, John Corzine, left the state in a deplorable financial mess. Teachers have been asked to embrace a one-year wage freeze to avoid necessary layoffs. Hmmmm. Teachers are having none of that nonsense:

More than 100 districts have achieved some type of salary freeze when administrators and staff are included. However, only a fraction of those include teachers, according to the governor's office.

The source for this story, The Trentonian, has some interesting comments.

Chris Christie Winner New Jersey Governor Race: Chris Christie Big Fat Winner

Chris Christie predicted he would be "a big fat winner," and according to Fox News, Republican Chris Christie has won the New Jersey governor race, unseating the wealthy, tax-raising Democrat, Jon Corzine. See video below.

Chris Christie 

New Jersey has had 27 Democrat governors and 16 Republicans. Christie Todd Whitman is the last Republican elected statewide. She left office in January 2001.

Corzine alluded to Chris Christie being too fat to be hold the governorship. That ratcheted-up the dialogue and Christie made some hay with it (see a video below).

 Christie supports tax credits for families sending their children to private schools, he supports state-funded vouchers for families trying to get their children out of failing school districts, he supports merit pay for teachers and wants to increase the availability of charter schools. Christie supports civil unions and opposes same-sex marriage. He has promised not to raise taxes, and to lower the state income and business taxes - although he has stated this will not be doable immediately, and especially not doable in the first year.

Chris Christie made a name for himself by prosecuting public officials from both sides of the aisle, without losing a case.

For six years he was indisputably the state's most visible law enforcement officer, a finger-wagging prosecutor with Jersey roots who made a name convicting so many corrupt public officials that state GOP leaders practically begged him to ride his white horse into Trenton and recapture the governor's mansion.

Chris Christie, 47, is a former U.S. Attorney for the district of New Jersey. He graduated University of Delaware with a B.A. in Political Science and received his J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law in 1987. After graduation he joined the firm of Dughi, Hewit & Palatucci in Cranford, New Jersey. He became a partner of the firm in 1993.

Christie has been married to Mary Pat Foster Christie since 1986. They have 4 children together, between the ages of 5 and 15, and live in Mendham Township, and he love Bruce Springsteen.

Corzine, 62, is a former U.S. Senator, a former CEO of Goldman-Sachs, and a very wealthy man who earned an estimated $400 million in Goldman Sachs' initial public offering. He won the New Jersey governor's race in 2005. He has campaigned for mandatory public preschool, affirmative action, universal health care and same-sex marriage.

Republican Chris Christie was practically begged by the state GOP to run this race (maybe they did "beg"). He won forty-nine percent to Corzine's forty-five percent. Fifty eight percent of independents voted for Christie with thirty one percent casting their vote for the Democrat.






Don Imus and Chris Christie (video)