NEW JERSEY CITIZEN ACTION RESPONDS TO CHRISTIE’S FINAL BUDGET ADDRESS 

Trenton – Governor Christie gave his final Budget Address as Governor today. In his speech he proposed using Horizon’s excess reserves in the state budget.

New Jersey Citizen Action’s Associate Director Dena Mottola Jaborska responded in a statement:

Today’s speech was more of the same from Chris Christie, who has destroyed our state’s finances and hampered our state economy by adhering to policy choices that he knew would keep him in favor with the far right wing of the Republican Party.  By giving massive tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations and  refusing  to forge solutions that would generate the revenue we desperately need to fulfill our state’s obligations, Christie  has depleted nearly every fund dedicated to clean energy, public health and the environment in order to balance past state budgets.   But he’s not finished running the state government in a way that builds his own political career. Now he’s looking to forcibly extract money from a private non -profit health care insurer to further his image as the New Jersey savior of people sick with drug and alcohol addiction.

Chris Christie has no business shaking down a private non-profit. If Christie wants and needs money to fund health care in our state, he would be better off speaking up in support of the Affordable Care Act and the Medicaid funding our state relies on today. Funding for ACA and its Medicaid expansion is raised through taxes on some of the wealthiest people and corporations in America, including health insurers. That is the appropriate way to raise money for healthcare and that is how he can ensure people who are sick, with addiction or anything, can get well again. Health coverage is essential for recovering from any illness and staying healthy

What is clear from Chris Christie’s final budget address is that he has no answers for the critical health care issues facing our state and our residents today. A loss of the ACA and the Medicaid expansion funding will create nothing short of an economic disaster. Yet Gov. Christie is too busy burnishing his fast dwindling credibility with President Trump to stand up for the people of the state he ostensibly governs. A true leader would stand up to members of his own party in Congress and in the White House to protect the health care coverage of the residents of New Jersey.