In Trenton, sins of the present John Schoonejongen, Capitol Quickies1:34 a.m. EDT July 5, 2014 When Gov. Chris Christie announced in May that he planned to cut payments to the state public employees pension systems, he relied on a metaphor that was designed to both point a finger at his predecessors and deflect any blame for the underfunding that plagues the pensions. We will not make the payments that apply to the sins of the past, the governor said at a press conference. The administrations repeated use of the phrase, while stressing Christie was still making the current pension payment, came across as near boasting. Walking away from those sins of the past is nothing to boast about; rather it was an abdication of his duty as governor. Many of the phrases Christie uses are littered with subtext. In 2010, for example, the governor evoked memories of the segregated South when he accused the New Jersey Education Association of standing in the schoolhouse door blocking reform. The inference with these types of phrases is that something or someone is getting in the way of Christies good intentions. The phrases are usually personal and unflattering. From Christies use of sins of the past, we can derive that every governor from Christie Todd Whitman through Jon Corzine didnt fund the pension the way they were supposed to (a fact). We can also surmise that these governors were very bad for not doing the right thing and saddling poor Chris Christie with the mess. Sin tends to work that way. But what of Christies responsibilities? From the George Washington Bridge scandal to the troubles with the state pension system, the governor seems determined to divorce himself from the government he runs. He cannot. Personal peccadilos aside, chief executives inherit whatever mess comes with the office and that mess becomes theirs. Similarly, President Barack Obama can complain about George W. Bush all he wants, but five years into his term, Bushs problems are now Obamas. He owns them — lock, stock and rusted barrel. Christie, like Obama, has won two elections. Whatever Corzines problems were, they are now Christies. Thats the bargain you make when you seek and win an office. The irony is that governors and presidents want the job they hold and the messes that come with them. They dont run because every problem has been solved and all is well and good with the world. Christie ran on the argument that Corzine screwed things up so badly that the state needed him to ride in and fix it. To his credit, Christie never argued that fixing things would be easy, but he did argue — twice — that he was the man to do the job. Waving away the sins of the past was not part of the deal. All of this would be moot if Christie had dealt with the issue as he had promised. The governor said quite forcefully that the state needed to face head-on the mounting shortfall in state employees benefits systems. With the Legislature, he enacted reforms that promised increased payments into the pension systems. Christie bragged about this reform on a national stage, but as New Jerseys economy continued to sputter, the billions he was supposed to spend on pensions began to look awfully attractive as a method of propping up a budget. So rather than comply with his own law, he backed off those aggressive payments and instead chose to simply pay the minimum, while making the argument that only with further reforms would the underfunding dissipate. There is an undeniable logic to it. Hard times, hard choices. Most of us have been in those situations. We choose which bill to pay first because there isnt enough money to pay them all. But what if you had ignored your paycheck? What if you just kept telling yourself you were making more money than you really were and you spent based on those poor assumptions? When the bills poured in, would the sins of the past be paying you an unwelcome visit? For several years, Christie has done exactly that: He oversold revenue projections and spent money we really didnt have based on those fantasies. Yes, the seas were rough, but the governor really didnt correct our course. He simply shifted the load in a listing ship. There are no innocents in Trenton. The sins of the past are the sins of thepresent, too.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 02:18:12 +0000