“It is disturbing that infighting within the Democratic party over competing gaming bills may deprive the voters of the ability to consider this question in November”, Christie said. “Gov. Christie is failing to support the free market system and competitive capitalism”.
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“All we’re going to hear tonight about the big challenges that we face today as a nation is a lot of hot air from not only from Congress but from the White House as well”, Christie said.
Christie also touted decreases in crime, included what he called a 52 percent drop in the murder rate in Camden over the last three years.
“You can be the most conservative Republican in New Jersey – and Christie is not – and you wouldn’t be considered a conservative nationally”, legislative reporter Michael Symons tells the Globe.
The Assembly is sending legislation to Gov. Chris Christie that it hopes will lead to increased sales of so-called smart guns, which can only be fired by authorized users.
Christie, who has spent a majority of his time the past year out of the state running for president, focused nearly all of his speech on issues in New Jersey.
That bill generated criticism from gun advocates who said the technology was unreliable.
Chris Christie delivers his State of the State address, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016, in Trenton, N.J.
Democrats said Mr. Christie’s speech was tone deaf to New Jersey’s issues, and faulted him for cutting promised pension payments during his past budgets.
Christie did, however, make note of the state’s ongoing pension crisis and warned Democrats about the negative fiscal consequences of their current quest to mandate future payments through a constitutional amendment. Wendell Steinhauer, president of the New Jersey Education Association teachers union, said that New Jersey’s “best days are ahead of us” when Mr. Christie leaves office.
His approval rating in New Jersey also has dipped to its lowest point. “One of the achievements that I’m proudest of, we’ve helped thousands of people whose lives have been devastated by drugs to get the help they need”. Federal lawmakers have also proposed a nationwide smoking age of 21. “We’ve got elections for a new governor and the entire Legislature less than two years away”.
Prieto has said the Assembly bill would allow some of the top casino companies in the world, including Wynn Resorts, to come to New Jersey, where they presently do not operate. Unfortunately, we see signs of this already. Christie suggested that to accomplish that goal, taxes would have to be raised by 3 billion dollars or spending cut by the same amount, affecting everything from hospitals and schools to law enforcement.
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New Jersey’s 16 Senate Republicans serve to make New Jersey the place to live, grow, work, vacation and retire. New Jersey taxes property owners’ “decedents” on estates beginning at a value of $675,000, making New Jersey “unfair” and “uncompetitive”, he said.
