Governor Christie called on Democrats to work with him to cut spending to support his income tax reduction.
Governor Christie continued to push for his tax cut on his monthly radio show, saying if Democrats don’t think there’s enough revenue to support it they should cut state spending.
“The Democrats set up a false choice and the false choice is that the only way we can cut taxes is if revenue increases,” Christie said on “Ask the Governor” on 101.5 FM Monday night. “What they don’t understand is that the only way that revenue is going to increase is for us to stimulate the private sector economy in this state and the way to do that in my view is lower taxes and lower regulation.”
Christie first introduced his signature income tax cut last year, which would have been phased in over three years, but Democrats said they would not vote for it unless there was sufficient state revenue, which has not kept up with the governor’s projections overall.
Christie appears to be considering including the income tax cut in the upcoming fiscal year, which starts July 1.
“I just had my second meting last week on the FY 15 budget, so it’s November, I have to submit that in February,” he said. “So we’ve got some time and see how things develop and we’re going to look at ways to cut back spending.”
The governor was forced to delay about $400 million in property tax relief payments earlier this year to close a budget shortfall.
But while he was in Arizona last week, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno revived the call for an income tax cut during the annual New Jersey League of Municipalities meeting in Atlantic City. Her remarks came after New Jersey Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Robert Grady said the state would benefit from such a reduction and that New Jersey can afford it.
Guadagno and Christie have not offered specifics on what they’re looking for.
After Guadagno’s speech Senate President Stephen Sweeney, a Democrat who has worked with Christie on a number of issues, dismissed the tax cut idea. “We’re not going to do gimmicks or sound bites and dig this state deeper in a hole,” Sweeney said.
Christie targeted Sweeney in his remarks Monday night.
“It’s a shame that Senator Sweeney believes that there is not any spending that can be cut in state government to make tax cuts more affordable,” Christie said.
He then railed on Democrats who won tightly contested Legislative races after running ads that promoted their work with the Republican governor.
“They ran on ‘We work with the governor,’” he said. “Well okay now, time to work with the governor and that’s what they’re going to be hearing from me. Their mandate – to the extent they have any – is to work with me. That’s it. They ran on nothing else.”
