You can mock his brash
demeanor.
You can dismiss his
relentless irreverence
You can even smirk at his
ample girth or take pleasure in his presumed downfall.
But one thing you cannot do
is deny Chris Christie's many accomplishments.
When Chris Christie
proclaimed on election night 2009 that he would "turn Trenton upside
down," he wasn't joking.
Because this quintessential
Jersey Guy did what others only talked about doing. He actually stemmed the
rising tide of the state's runaway property taxes. Christie succeeded in
getting a state-imposed cap of property tax hikes that dramatically cut the
rate of annual tax hikes from seven percent before he took office to an average
of 2.3 percent during his tenure. And Christie also capped arbitration
awards for police and fire salaries, saving homeowners $2.9 billion in property
taxes over seven years. On top of all that, he even managed to slash the state
government payroll and cut the state sales tax.
And at the same time,
Christie brokered an unprecedented deal with Democrats enacting a wide-ranging
pension and benefits reform package that eliminated cost-of-living
adjustments, delivered a projected savings to state and local
governments of $120 billion over 30 years. At the same time, Christie's
administration poured $8.8 billion into the pension system over eight
years—more than double the amount contributed by the last five governors
combined.
Christie also took on the powerful
NJEA teachers' union, doubled the number of charter-school enrollments and
enacted tenure reforms allowing principals to fire ineffective teachers. Along
the way, the governor became a passionate champion of school choice and
common-sense education reform.
When Christie first proposed the
reorganization of Rutgers and Rowan universities and a closer cooperation
between the two, academic elites scoffed at his ideas. But the new combo has
proven to be a success, giving South Jersey a world-class research university
and a brand new Rowan Medical School while helping to increase grants and spike
academic ratings for Rutgers.
When Chris Christie took office New
Jersey was in the economic doldrums. Unemployment was hovering near double
digits and growth was sluggish. Under Governor Christie, more than 300,000 new
jobs have been created and the unemployment rate has been cut by more than
half. And nowhere is business development and job growth more evident than in
Camden where, for the first time, major companies such as Subaru, Holtec
International and American Water are bringing private sector jobs back to the
city. In fact, it's safe to say that no governor in recent history has been
more involved with Camden, spent more time in Camden or done more for the city
than Governor Christie.
As significant as all these
accomplishments are, many people believe that Christie's historic overhaul of
the bail system along with drug violation and drug treatment reforms will be
cited as among his most historic achievements. The governor put together a deal
with the legislature that basically eliminated bail for all except those
charged with violent crimes. Governor Christie also expanded "drug
courts,'' which allow non-violent drug offenders to be moved to treatment
programs instead of prison. And he reached out to those addicted to drugs with
tough love and understanding by widening the use of Narcan to save lives,
cracking down on runaway opioid prescriptions, supporting drug treatment
programs and expanding treatment centers throughout the state. Here, the
governor's program became a national model and won him a coveted spot at the
helm of President Trump's commission on the opioid crisis.
At almost every turn, Chris
Christie was an audacious visionary who always opted to do what he called
"the big things". His move to raise the Bayonne Bridge allowing
supertankers to pass under the structure and now dock in Port Newark is a
perfect example of that. And recently, in an historic joint effort, Christie
and Governor Andrew Cuomo put the finishing touches on the massive $12.7
billion Gateway Tunnel project linking New York and New Jersey.
Yes, Chris Christie can be surprisingly
abrupt and startlingly dismissive at times. And here and there he may have
allowed bald ambition to impede progress.
But even now, no one can
doubt his love for his home state and his visceral connection to its citizens,
even those who may have soured on him. And no one can erase his impressive list
of achievements.
This was
a consequential administration and Chris Christie remains a transformational
governor.
Editor's note: This op-ed also appears in today's Courier Post newspaper.
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