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Chris Christie OK With Sandy Taxes: "There's No Magic Money Tree"
By
Garth Johnston
Published Nov 14, 2012
Modified Nov 14, 2012
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Nov 14, 2012
Modified Nov 14, 2012
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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has continued his post-Hurricane Sandy leftward lean. After embracing President Obama in the wake of the storm (and only e-mailing former-BFF Mitt Romney after the election) the famously tax-averse Governor has gone and supported the idea of raising taxes to pay for cleanup. "It’s got to be paid for," he said yesterday. "There’s no magic money tree." Sheesh, he could have at least made sure we were sitting down before shattering our dreams like that.
The Garden State gov yesterday told reporters that he would be expecting the Feds to do as much for New Jersey after Sandy as they did for the Gulf Coast after Katrina. But he also said he'd allow municipalities to raise property taxes more than the two percent limit he made law in 2010. "I know how to do math," he said. "I’m a realist."
Christie, dressed in a suit and tie rather than his now-famous monogrammed fleece, also gave a good little defense of federal aide and FEMA, something that his buddy Romney was not always a fan of: "There are plenty of instances that can happen in our country where a state by itself is not equipped to deal with the results of a natural disaster. And so the country needs to band together to help its other states to be able to get over something that has been disproportionately foisted on one or two or three states of the 50." Still, he wants voters to know that "no, it hasn’t turned me from a limited-government guy to a big-government guy."
Christie also said the state treasury would release figures at the end of this week projecting the storm’s damage to the state economy. Governor Cuomo has estimated damage in New York is well over $30 billion—which is what he's asking the feds to cover.
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chris chirstie
hurricane sandy
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