Also Vetoes Legislation to Protect Domestic Jobs From Outsourcing

Early Friday evening, Governor Christie quietly vetoed legislation that required a cost analysis of proposed privatization contracts.  Despite strong support for the concept from his own Privatization Task Force Chairman and former Republican Congressman Dick Zimmer, Christie continues to illustrate his desire to undermine government transparency and undermine taxpayer protection efforts   from the negative financial impact of privatization boondoggles that have plagued our contracting process in the past.  Privatization “gone wrong” has resulted in squandering millions in taxpayer dollars while simultaneously rewarding politically connected contractors. The bill, S-968 / A-1494 (Weinberg, Turner / Vainieri Huttle, Watson Coleman) sought a common sense approach to contracting by requiring a cost analysis prior to privatizing a government service, as well as conducting the same audit after the contract was implemented, in order to assure that potential savings actually materialized.

On behalf of the more than one-million-member New Jersey State AFL-CIO, we express our opposition to Governor Christie’s decision to hold a special election for New Jersey’s U.S. Senate seat just 20 days before the scheduled general election.  Experts estimate that the cost of scheduling this special election will be $12 million.

A report released today by PolitiFact NJ in the Star-Ledger confirms some disturbing facts regarding Governor Christie’s policies. PolitiFact found that in 2010, the Governor made two cuts to education which totaled about $1 billion. The study also found that the Christie administration is on target to hand out $2.3 billion is corporate tax breaks, which is almost double the $1.2 billion spent on corporate tax breaks over the entire previous decade.

TRENTON – The New Jersey State AFL-CIO issued the following statement regarding Governor Christie’s veto of the early voting bill.

Governor Chris Christie has been recognized as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world for the second time, but the question remains: what impact has the Governor’s influence had?

“Unions are the problem.” These were the words that Governor Christie used in response to a question posed by a teacher at a recent town hall meeting.

TRENTON – New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech issued the following statement concerning the Governor’s conditional veto of legislation (A-2162) that seeks to increase the minimum wage and includes an annual cost of living adjustment (COLA).