Christie On Realty Transfer Tax: 'Dump It!'

Transcript:

Scott Packwood: Good morning, Governor. I’m a recently retired State Trooper after doing 25 years of service. I worked pretty hard. I worked through 9/11, Hurricane Floyd, Hurricane Andrew. I worked hard. I put all my money to the bank, saved it. Two weeks ago, I sold my home. I’ve lived here since 1989. I sold my home, property taxes are just out of control. The HUD statement says I that I had to pay a tax of $5,435 for realty transfer fee. And I’d just like to know what that is and -

Governor Christie: I’m glad you got up and said you said what you said because of taxes, you get rid of your home. 

Because they tell me that people like you don’t exist. 

When I tell the Legislature people leave this state every day because they can’t afford to live here, they tell me I’m crazy. And then if I give them examples they go, well it’s only rich people. 

Well I don’t know. I kind of know what we pay State Troopers, and you’re there for 25 years, I don’t think you got rich being in the State Police. 

And so the point is members of the Legislature who are here or who are listening, he exists, he exists, and he’s angry, I can tell. 

You know it’s funny because when I came over here to answer her question I was looking at him, and I could see he’s—there’s something on his mind man. Like he won’t look up at me, he was kind of looking down. He looked a little bit angry, and then when he raised his hand I’m like, well, I can’t let this guy go away angry so he may yell at me. I’m not so sure how this is going to go, but the point is we need to put a spotlight on folks like you who are not rich, who are leaving here because you can’t afford to stay here, and the Legislature when I say cut taxes to make your life more affordable, they say no, no, no, no, no. There’s not people like that. There are no people like that. This is craziness. Between 2005 and 2009 an independent study by Boston College said $70 billion in wealth left this state in those four years, 70 billion in wealth, and people are leaving, and they leave for the reasons that he just talked about, and then the great gift that Governor McGreevey and the state Legislature gave him was that, oh yeah, you’re going to leave us? We’ll take 5400 bucks from you on the way out the door. Thank you very much. And it makes no sense. There’s no rhyme or reason to it. 

A sales tax? There’s a rhyme or reason to it. An income tax? There’s a rhyme or reason to it. A corporate business tax? There’s a rhyme or reason to it. 

A realty transfer fee? Man, I’ll tell you, from my perspective it makes no sense, and I had no better luck explaining it to that lady whose son was on the other team playing my son. She’s like, can’t you fix this? Man, I wish I could. Yeah—and here’s the thing: I’d fix it tomorrow if they’d let me. 

I’ve suggested all different kinds of ways to reduce taxes in this state, none of which get done. And they don’t get done because they believe that just taxes should just continue to go up. And they’ll say that they don’t believe that, but when I give you all different kinds of tax cut plans and you don’t vote for any of them and send them to my desk well what the heck am I supposed to believe?