Christie says he's ready to start union negotiations

HILLSBOROUGH, N.J. - Gov. Christie expressed "love" for collective-bargaining rights Wednesday, saying he was eager to begin negotiating with public-worker unions to create contracts that are fair to taxpayers.

"Let me at them," Christie said at a town-hall meeting in this central New Jersey community. "Get me out of the cage, and let me go!"

Christie said the "Democratic Party and liberals in the media" were trying to compare Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker - who has drawn controversy for trying to get rid of some collective-bargaining rights - with Christie, who is pushing for state workers to pay more for pensions and health care.

"Thinking people know that I haven't suggested once, nor will I, that we should take collective-bargaining rights from people," he said.

But during keynote remarks at a transportation conference in Trenton later in the day, Christie indicated that collective-bargaining rights were not as sacrosanct as they were often made out to be.

"Let's not be mistaken: Collective bargaining is not a God-given right," he said. "Those rights did not come down on stone tablets down from the mountain."

The Governor's Office said negotiating sessions with the major unions had been set for this month. Fourteen contracts, covering more than 50,000 state employees, expire in June.

Christie vowed negotiations would be different from those when previous governors and union leaders sat "at a round table, holding hands, singing 'Kumbaya,' wondering how much of your money they were going to take."

Not anymore, Christie said, to applause from the crowd of several hundred. "They're going to be negotiating with me."

Christie also took aim at the so-called "millionaires tax" on top earners, which some Democrats are considering as a way of closing the state budget deficit. If the Democrats get that tax through, he said, "they're coming after you next."

Democratic leadership did not commit Wednesday to supporting such a tax, but Assembly Democratic spokesman Tom Hester Jr. said in an e-mail that Christie's current fiscal approach placed the tax burden on middle-class families, "who are tired of this rhetoric and a governor who responds only to conservative pundits."

As is usually the case at Christie's town-hall meetings, the crowd seemed mostly supportive. But he did get into some testy exchanges.

A retired teacher from Hillsborough, Martha Bittle, said she didn't understand why Christie was investing $261 million to jump-start a stalled Atlantic City casino project while retirees such as her sister-in-law, turning 80, would be unable to afford to live with cuts to her pension.

Among other changes, Christie wants to cut cost-of-living increases for retirees. He is pushing such changes to pension and medical benefits through the Legislature, not in the collective-bargaining process.

Christie said the money for the casino would be used to build infrastructure around that neighborhood and create thousands of jobs to address the unemployment rate in South Jersey.

But Christie went beyond that, asking Bittle if her solution was "to have Atlantic City sink into the ocean."

And he added: "Everybody's got the 80-year-old aunt story."

Later, Bittle said of the exchange: "He should think of people as individuals and their struggle. He was a little flippant."

Regardless, she said, she thinks Christie makes sense. "I'm not angry," she said. "I'm afraid."

A 17-year-old senior at Hillsborough High School asked Christie why he sent his four children to private schools. He even invoked one of Christie's favorite expressions, questioning how the governor had "skin in the game" when he made funding cuts to public schools.

"So what you're advocating is mandatory public education for everyone?" Christie asked. "Because I ran for public office I have to have mandatory public school [for my children]?"

The student, Michael Zhang, said afterward that Christie's response had not taken him aback.

"I think he was at least genuine in his answer - he didn't tiptoe around it - and that's an aspect of his personality that I respect," he said.

Keep up with all things Christie with Matt Katz's "Christie Chronicles" blog at www.philly.com/christiechroniclesEndText