Christie takes his pension-reform plan on the road

WASHINGTON - Gov. Christie brought his crusade to cut benefits for New Jersey's public workers to the nation's capital Thursday, urging a major gathering of the state's political and business leaders to join him in what he described as a fight for survival.

"You're ready, I'm ready, and the stakes are nothing less than our children and grandchildren's future in the state that we all love," Christie told a crowd of about 700.

Like a power lunch writ large, the 74th annual New Jersey Chamber of Commerce Congressional Dinner featured politicos and wannabe politicos, business leaders and university presidents, both New Jersey senators, and most New Jersey representatives.

It began with a "walk to Washington" - actually a chartered Amtrak train that got its nickname from the walking that businesspeople, lobbyists, and state legislators traditionally do while riding the train. Often, the walking leads to the bar car.

Christie did not ride the train, but he arrived in time to deliver the keynote speech, which briefly recapped his first year in office, saying the state had begun to build "momentum" toward economic recovery. Then he delved into what has become the theme of his second year in office: dramatically changing the pension system, expanding charter schools, offering school choice to poor children, giving merit pay to good teachers, and forcing all unionized public workers, including police officers and firefighters, to contribute more to their benefits.

"These programs must be reformed because they're bankrupting us," Christie said. With a state pension system underfunded by $54 billion, "there's no other way to fix it other than to reduce benefits."

"This is not soaring rhetoric," he added, using a phrase often attributed to President Obama, "but it's the truth."

"Soaring rhetoric feels good for a little while, but if there's no follow-through with the soaring rhetoric, all there is are the same problems, but bigger," he said.

Christie acknowledged that there would be "anger and resentment," but "if you want to be honest with a police officer and firefighter, if you want to be genuine with a teacher or a county worker, you need to look them in the eye and tell them that truth, and then work to fix it so when they do retire they can have something for their family, not nothing."

Christie, on his second trip to Washington in as many weeks, is building a national reputation for his tough antiunion talk.

But he mixed that with humor Thursday, alluding to the criticism he faced when he went to Disney World with his family in December instead of staying in New Jersey and overseeing operations during a snowstorm. With another storm Thursday, he said, "as you know my first instinct was to head to Florida immediately." He said he thought he would bring the lieutenant governor and state Senate president with him.

The state's business leaders responded warmly to the Republican, but they schmoozed with members of both parties. Companies that do business with government sponsored open-bar receptions throughout the Marriott Hotel, where the event was held.

Christie warned business leaders that his problems with the state's public unions were their problems, too, because "you're helping to pay that money that's being wasted."

The outreach to business comes as Christie prepares to go to Illinois next week to woo businesses away from the land of Lincoln after that state raised its corporate tax rate from 4.8 percent to 7 percent. (New Jersey's corporate rate is higher, at 9 percent).

Christie even launched advertisements in Illinois deriding the business climate there and inviting businesses to check out the Garden State. "Don't let Illinois balance its budget on the back of your business," Christie says in one radio spot.

Illinois' Democratic governor, Pat Quinn, responded by calling Christie "some guy from Jersey" and pointing out Christie canceled a rail tunnel into New York City that would have created thousands of construction jobs, forced the layoffs of teachers due to reduced education funding, and skipped a pension payment.

"He was advertising before [the elections] for my opponent, and nobody listened to him then, and I don't know why anybody would listen to him" now, Quinn said. "I don't need that kind of advice from that guy."

Quinn also noted that Illinois ranked far better than New Jersey in a rating by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation for business tax climate.

State Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester), who attended the event Thursday, dismissed Christie's courtship of Illinois.

"The Illinois thing is cute, but how about you truly focus on getting the job done here?" Sweeney asked, referring to New Jersey. "He spent more on advertising in Illinois than he did on funding the pension system in New Jersey. C'mon. It's embarrassing, to be perfectly honest with you."

Sweeney said Christie should "knock off the silliness" and sign a package of 30 bills passed by the Democratic Legislature - dubbed "Back to Work NJ" - that Sweeney said would actually do something to create jobs.

State Sen. Donald Norcross (D., Camden), also in attendance Thursday night, agreed. One of the bills would provide tax credits for mixed-used developments near transit stops, including the Ferry Avenue PATCO station in Camden. Norcross said the project would bring a charter school, market-rate and affordable housing, stores, and offices.

In the meantime, Norcross said, he was fine with the governor's reaching out to Illinois. He said there was a new perception around the country that "New Jersey is open for business."