Gov. Christie: It’s Time For Us To Start Writing The Story Of NJ’s Economic Success

Transcript:

Governor Christie:  The story of lagging growth by New Jersey is an old story. You need to look at the numbers today. No one in the northeast has a better story of employing their citizens than this state does. And for those who are critical of this record, all I’ll say to them is, let’s see if they can improve upon it. Let’s see if they can make unemployment lower. Let’s see if they can employ more folks in the private sector. And by the way, these numbers include the fact that we continue to drive down public sector employment. This administration’s policies, with the property tax cap at the municipal and county level have continued to drive down public sector employment. And our administration has eliminated nearly 11,000 state government jobs since February of 2010 without any layoffs, just through attrition. So those numbers affect the unemployment rate as well, whether you have a private escort or a public sector job, that effects the rate. So while we’re eliminating tens of thousands of public sector jobs, our unemployment rate has gone from 9.8 percent in the first full month when I was Governor to 4.1 percent. And 4.1 percent has now been steady for the last couple of months and below the national rate and below the rate of every one of the states in the region. So it’s time for us to start writing the story of New Jersey’s economic success. And that success I think in a large measure is built upon the policies that we put together. We inherited a difficult economic situation in 2010. Based upon the 2008 to 2009 economic downturn across the country and particularly here in New Jersey. And we have inherited significantly anti-growth policies in this state, high taxes, large government, high spending, and a high regulatory environment. We’ve reduced that regulatory environment, we’ve held the line on taxes, and we have put forward pro-growth policies in the areas where we could agree with the Legislature, which was predominantly in the areas of incentives. And while that would not have been my first choice, anything that reduces the cost to employers in the state, is good for the state.

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