Christie brags about bipartisanship, then attacks Democrats

CEDAR GROVE, N.J. - Gov. Christie promoted his willingness to cross partisan divides at a town-hall meeting Thursday, two days after the state's largest teachers' union announced that it no longer would negotiate with a commission he formed to overhaul New Jersey's pension system.

But after his introduction by Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo - a Democratic power broker who has been an ally - the Republican governor laid into Democratic legislative leaders, who this week joined a lawsuit by public-sector unions trying to compel the state to make a larger payment into the system.

Christie said lawmakers had passed a budget that included a pension contribution $1.6 billion short of what the state was required to pay, based on a law passed in 2011.

"They passed the budget that had that $650, $700 million [in pension funding]. The Legislature passed it, and I signed it. With that number," Christie said. "They're now suing to force the court to force them to do what they didn't do. They're essentially suing themselves."

The budget passed by the Legislature last June, however, included a $2.25 billion contribution to the pension system for the current fiscal year, paid for with tax increases on income over $1 million and in the corporate business tax. Christie vetoed those increases and reduced the size of the pension contribution to $681 million.

A state court judge ruled in February that the reduction violated the contractual rights of public workers. But the administration appealed to the state Supreme Court and is arguing that lawmakers are complicit because they did not try to override Christie's vetoes.

The court is expected to hear the case in May.

On Thursday, Christie warned that if Democrats in the Legislature had their way, taxpayers would suffer.

"There's only one money tree in New Jersey, everybody, and I'm looking at you," Christie said after arguing for cutbacks in public worker health benefits and a switch to 401(k)-style pension plans.

Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D., Hudson) said Christie "can say whatever he wants, but people aren't buying it."

"The undeniable fact is, the governor signed the 2011 pension-reform law and touted it as a major accomplishment, but is now trying to make excuses for failing to fulfill it," Prieto said.

Earlier this year Christie celebrated the New Jersey Education Association's participation in pension discussions as "an unprecedented accord," but the union said Tuesday it would no longer negotiate, citing Christie's failure to make the payments into the pension system specified by the 2011 law.

Christie said Thursday that the union had agreed to a "framework" proposed by a commission he appointed, but "what happened? Politics comes into it again."

He accused Democrats of inaction while responding to a man who complained about lawmakers with more than one public job, including Prieto. The speaker works as code official for Secaucus and Guttenberg, both in Hudson County.

Christie said he had advocated for ethics changes that would have limited the number of jobs lawmakers could hold, but was rebuffed by the Legislature.

In New Jersey, he said, having one public job is considered only "a good start."

Tom Hester, a spokesman for Prieto, said the speaker is not collecting benefits from his municipal jobs.

During Thursday's meeting, the man who had asked about multiple job holders, Howard McPherson of North Bergen, lifted a card in the air that read "Christie 2016."

Christie - who was greeted by a nonconfrontational crowd Thursday, though his New Jersey poll numbers have sunk to new lows - said he would decide on a presidential bid by May or June, repeating the time frame he gave host Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show Wednesday.

He was to attend a fund-raiser in Boston for his political action committee later Thursday.

Activists, including several from New Jersey, planned to go there to protest his opposition to requiring that businesses provide workers with paid sick leave.