Governor Christie Defends Increased Spending In His Budget Proposal [AUDIO]

Wherever he goes, Governor Christie continues to discuss the importance of cutting spending to get our fiscal house in order – but some are wondering if that’s the case, why does his proposed fiscal year 2013 budget call for 2-point-1 billion dollars in spending increases?

During his latest town hall in Kearny, the Governor said when you look at what we’re actually spending the money on, it should provide everyone a degree of relief, because “we’re supposed to be putting in over 3 billion dollars into the pension system – we don’t have it- but I’m putting 1-point-1 billion- in so a large amount of the spending is that payment…plus debt payments that have gone up- because of debt that was run up…by Governor Whitman, by Governor McGreevey, by Governor Codey and by Governor Corzine…we’re paying today for those sins of the past – still – and we’re going to be paying for it for a while.”

He says the total spending in the executive branch of government this year ” has gone up 1-point-7 percent – the rest of the money is based on pension payments and debt payments and an increase in school funding…and we put a little bit more money into higher education this year as well -into tuition aid grants for our needier students- about 28 million dollars – but that’s not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things…so really you’re looking at most of the budget remaining flat- a 1-point-7 percent increase.”

The Governor stresses we owe public sector workers “these pensions – we’ve made the promise to them – we can’t just close our eyes, click our heels and hope it goes away…and remember, we’re still spending less today than we spent in 2008.”