Sweeney Calls Economy Top Issue for 2014 [AUDIO]

What will or should be the most pressing issue for New Jersey in 2014? The top lawmaker in the legislature said this year should be all about job creation and economic growth.

"We need to fix the economy," said State Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford). "That's the number one issue in this state. It surpassed property taxes in all the polling and everything else. It's the economy and that's because we have too many of our friends who have been out of work."

According to Sweeney, Gov. Chris Christie vetoed 30 job creation and economic growth bills between 2010 and 2012 and he never returned anything back to the legislature. Christie actually conditionally vetoed some and he later signed eight of them into law.

"We gave the governor a plan and he didn't like it," Sweeney said. "He needs to give us something back that's actually going to put New Jerseyans back to work. Being 45th in employment is not a position we want to be in in the State of New Jersey."

New Jersey's unemployment rate experienced its largest monthly drop on record, (0.6 percentage point) to 7.8 percent in November. Employers added 16,900 jobs, according to preliminary data released last month by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.