Christie: 'Fight The Fight' Against Gas Tax Hike?

From our friends at Save Jersey
By The Staff | The Save Jersey Blog

The Sarlo-Oroho gas tax hike/TTF plan got panned this morning, Save Jerseyans about 2-hours before its formal roll-out by the man who would need to sign off on it.

In Governor Chris Christie mind, the efforts of Democrat legislators (plus two Republicans – Steven Oroho of Sussex and Joe Kyrillos of Monmouth) which culminated in a plan financed in large part by a 23-cent per gallon gas tax bump are “not nearly enough for my taste, and that’s a discussion I’m sure we’ll be having in Trenton.”

Here’s an except of the Governor’s remarks to the Morris County Chamber of Commerce meeting in Whippany:

“On the proposed TTF solution, they want to double municipal aid from $200 million to $400 million and increase the TTF from $1.6 billion to $2 billion a year. And 50% of that increase will be give backs to municipalities for them to pave their roads. When did we get in the business of spending 20% of state money on paving municipal roads? Yet, I read all the editorials say, oh there’s a crisis on state roads and a crisis on state bridges, even though by the way, we’ve been $1.6  billion a year every year that I’ve been governor repairing those things. There’s a crisis all of a sudden. Okay, if there’s a crisis, what are you doing doubling the amount of money to municipalities? When they do that, let me tell you something, you know what that is? It is a payoff to protect their political backsides. Payoff the local mayors, payoff the local council, so they’ll endorse the local assemblyman and local senator. And don’t let them fool you that it’s property tax relief. Please, they’ll just pave more. You know what’s going on here.

“They want to raise to $2 billion have them spend more on mass transit for the state, have them spend more on our state roads and bridges, double the amount of money to municipalities and they have no clue in that plan what they would do with that money. It just sounds good. Double it, excellent, good, and you’ll pay. Look at the fine print everybody. The fine print’s important because all of that money, every dollar is yours, it’s yours, not mine, not ours, it’s yours. And that’s been the attitude of this government for the last six and half years, that every day I am the steward of your money”

“When I have vetoed every supplemental spending bill since I’ve been governor, every one, it’s because I say, you want it, put it in the budget in June, not during the year. That’s fiscal responsibility. You don’t do it in your business, we shouldn’t do it with your money. All of those principles will go out the door in 2018 if you make some bad choices in the next 18 months so it’s time to fight the fight everybody and I am up for it. I am ready. Hell, I’m not running for anything. Let’s go.”