GREENWALD: CHRISTIENOMICS WOULD 'BLOW UP' STATE BUDGET

GREENWALD: CHRISTIENOMICS WOULD 'BLOW UP' STATE BUDGET

(Trenton) – Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Louis D. Greenwald today warned that the economic policies not tossed aside by Chris Christie not only would blow up the state's budget but also turn the clock back on nearly a decade's worth of efforts to position New Jersey on a permanently firm fiscal footing.

“It's amazing that Chris Christie has waited until only four days before the polls open to admit that his entire economic plan was built on a foundation of sand,” said Greenwald (D-Camden). “The more Christie tosses his grandiose promises of the spring under the wheels of his campaign bus, the more it becomes obvious that his proposals were meant only to make good sound bites, not sound fiscal policy. New Jersey couldn't afford Christienomics in the 1990's, and we can't afford it now.”

In a story in today's New York Times, Christie abandoned most of his much-touted economic plan, leaving intact his pledge to lower taxes on the wealthiest New Jerseyans.

The story noted “his tax cuts and rebates could expand” an already looming budget deficit for the next fiscal year, and that Christie would require “miracle” concessions from public employees to make his plan workable.

“It's depressing that it takes sinking poll numbers the weekend before the election for Chris Christie to finally speak honestly about the failures of his own economic platform,” said Greenwald. “Under Governor Corzine and Democratic leadership, the underpinnings of the state budget have been based on hard numbers, hard facts and hard reality, not imaginary scenarios and wishful thinking. Instead of pinning the future of the state on miracles, it's time for Mr. Christie and his economic team to look at things as they really are, just as Democrats have.”

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