TRENTON – The kicking Governor Chris Christie while’s he’s down tour carried on today on the steps of the Statehouse, as teachers reps, public sector union workers and labor leaders appeared energized by the Republican’s imminent budget address.

“He knows his schools funding formula is against the law,” said Wendell Steinhauer, president of the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA).

Steinhauer said Christie – mired at 18% job approval in the polls and ready to give his budget numbers hours from now- underfunded public education by $8 billion over the course of his seven years as governor, in favor of “corporate welfare.”

“We will fight for our schools and if our legislators will not, we will fight for the taxpayers [and 1.4 million school children],” the teachers’ union leader said.

The state’s employee-benefits system is on track to eat 27 percent of state spending by 2022. According to Bloomberg News, “Christie has said he’ll include a $2.5 billion pension contribution, a record. Still, that’s about half the most recent actuarial recommendation for the system, which has a $135.7 billion shortfall.”