Christie talks budgets, pensions in Sussex

SPARTA – Another day, another town hall, and another missed opportunity for Gov. Chris Christie to make the Big Reveal.

The governor actually got through his 137th town hall Thursday at the Sussex County Technical School without fielding a question about whether he will run for president. Two members of the public did frame their respective inquiries about immigration and the environment by asking what he would do if he were to run and win, but he answered both without so much as a wink.

Christie began the event before a packed audience of 450 people with talking points on the state budget that he has repeated at previous town halls, including one two months ago in Hanover.

He did note, however, that budget talks are soon to begin in Trenton.

"It is mid-May in New Jersey, which means the Legislature is coming back to town, and it's time to get a budget done," he said. "Always, always a fun time of year for me, I can guarantee you."

He offered no predictions about the upcoming budget, but said that while his administration has curbed property tax increases, tightened up spending and the deficit since taking office in 2010, there is still work to be done.

"You would think that having done all that, we're in pretty good shape, but there's still the deadly sins of the past that we have to fix," he said, starting with pensions and healthcare for public workers.

"Not me, but the Obama administration, has characterized the type of healthcare insurance that we provide the public worker of New Jersey as platinum-plus," he said. "They think gold should be the top standard that anyone gets."

Stating "The costs of that health insurance, just for retired teachers, is $1 billion," Christie said he has worked with an independent commission that believes it can fix the budget with out cutting anyone's pension.

"Take the health benefits of all the public-sector workers in the state from platinum-plus down to gold," he said. "If we did that, the savings per year would be $3 billion. You take that $3 billion and you put it towards the pension fund every year."

He would like to start with a frequent target.

"I don't think it is any national secret that I have had my conflicts at times with the teacher's unions in this state," he said. "But starting with the end of last year, we started in quiet, secret negotiations with the teacher's union to try to get everyone on board with this plan. And in February, they actually signed a framework with us ... And then, just a few weeks ago, they announced they are walking away. They don't want to negotiate. They want everything they are getting now and don't want to give anything away. No negotiations.

"Listen everybody, if I'm willing to negotiate with them, they certainly should be willing to negotiate with me. And in the end, it's their members who are going to pay the price, because we cannot afford this system."

He later spent about an hour taking questions from the audience, ranging from illegal immigration ("Most people come here illegally because they want to work ... Make every employer in the country use the E-Verify system. If people who came here illegally and weren't getting hired, they wouldn't come"), to fracking ("In a state where we don't have any shale, they want me to ban something that we don't do. What's next? They want me to ban orange groves in New Jersey?").

Christie gave a particularly long leash to the most confrontational questioner, Mark Worobetz of Fredon, who urged him to find a way to complete the required payments to the teacher's pension.

"If I don't have the money, it's not because I didn't work hard enough," Christie said. "I don't have it because I didn't take it from all of you. So your deal is you want me to raise taxes on everybody else to make this payment when these folks get higher and better benefits than anyone who's paying for it. You want shared sacrifice? Then have health benefits like everybody else has."

Staff Writer William Westhoven: 973-428-6627; wwesthoven@GannettNJ.com.