Trenton, NJ – Brian Murray, Press Secretary to Governor Chris Christie, issued the following statement on the Governor’s intention to reinstate pay for state workers impacted by last week’s government closure if the legislature will send him a bill:

“As the Governor suggested yesterday in his letter to Speaker Prieto, the issue of pay for involuntarily furloughed workers is first a matter for the legislature to address. There is no lawful way for the Governor to do so on his own. If the legislature were to send him a bill reinstating pay for those workers, he would promptly sign the bill.”

“The Governor believes that the fault for the government shutdown has never been with the rank and file state workers. It is now, and always has been, with Speaker Prieto. His failure to address the issue of pay for state workers in the budget he presented to the Governor and his failure to say anything definitive on this issue until after the Senate had already scheduled a vote to support state workers is just further evidence of that fact.”

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