The middle class is in the limelight.
Hundreds of area residents piled into the YMCA of Burlington and Camden Counties in Mt. Laurel on Thursday, Oct. 11 for Gov. Chris Christie’s 96th town hall meeting.
The governor touted his middle class reform agenda and said that the state needs to become more affordable for residents.
Spanning for about two hours, Christie’s remarks and dialogue with the crowd ranged from his disdain for sick leave payouts to proposed tax cuts and even receiving some homework from a local high school student.
“Sick leave is for when you’re sick,” he said, suggesting that workers in the public sector should donate accumulated sick days to a coworker who is chronically or terminally ill rather than cashing in upon retirement.
New Jersey is facing $880 million in unpaid sick leave, he said.
The sick leave is paid out at the worker’s highest ending salary rather than what they originally made upon being hired year’s prior, he said.
“We need to end it,” he said. “It’s what they use to buy their boats after they retire. That shouldn’t be on the backs of the taxpayers.”
And remember, Christie added, public workers are also receiving taxpayer-funded pensions.
Speaking of his middle class reform agenda, or items still left undone, Christie said that it’s impossible to stop a 100 mile-per-hour train in one fell swoop.
In Burlington County last year, there was a 1.7 percent average tax increase, which means that his 2 percent cap is working.
However, some towns are creating user fees for services to get around the mandated cap.
“We want the cap to work,” he said. “We don’t want people to go around the cap. We need to make sure that the cap’s enforced.”
Another way to make living in the state more affordable, he said, is for towns to enter into shared services agreements.
“The task you gave me was to get spending in the state under control,” he said.
While the state is coming around, it’s not fast enough, Christie said, and it is time to “throw some gasoline” on the comeback.
Trenton, he said, should have it’s own dictionary for terms: “The Trenton-English Dictionary.”
“All of us normal human beings call raising taxes ‘raising taxes,’” he said.
In Trenton, it’s known as “enhanced revenues.”
“Government spending” turns into “investment in our future.”
Christie received applause for his belief that money should be given back to households.
“It’s your money in the first place,” he said. “You’re the ones who earn it and work for it.”
At this point, Christie does not want democrats standing in his way, he said.
“I’ve been nice for three years, by my standards,” he said. “This is unfinished business with the middle class in this state.”
“I mean to keep my promises,” he added. “This just not right.”
Taylor Kane, a 14-year-old Lenape High School freshman who has testified on the state and national level to include adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), a rare, heredity brain disease that is fatal if not detected early enough, asked Christie for his feelings on expanding newborn screenings.
She lost her father to the disease.
The bill is №2137 and is moving through the state legislature.
So far, he said, he has approved two additions to newborn screenings, and is generally in favor of adding more if they would be helpful with strong evidence.
Taylor then gave Christie some information to peruse, which he accepted.
This was the governor’s first visit to Mt. Laurel in about a year, said Mayor Jim Keenan, and he spoke of pension reform during his 2011 visit.
Christie has made numerous stops in the township, Keenan said.
The township had roughly a week’s notice of Christie’s visit this time around, and officials were glad to have him, added Keenan.
Christie’s visit came on the heels of his trek to Ohio with Presidential Candidate Gov. Mitt Romney.
It’s amazing how much residents of other states know about what is going on in New Jersey, Christie said, through the reach of the Internet and YouTube videos.
When Christie and Romney reached a suburb of Cleveland on a recent cold, autumn night, thousands upon thousands of supporters greeted them.
“It was an amazing moment,” Christie said.
