Christie To Legislators: Pass My Restructuring Plan [AUDIO]

The Democratic Chairman of the State Senate Budget Committee says lawmakers will not vote on Governor Christie's proposed higher education restructuring plan, unless they know for sure what it's going to cost.

Governor Christie, who wants the changes adopted before the beginning of July, doesn't seem worried about the situation.

He says "we're working hard to get the numbers to people - and we have each one of the institutions working with each other- Rutgers-Camden and Rowan, Rutgers along with UMDNJ to come up with those numbers…this is a really good budget that they have nothing to complain about - and so folks like Senator Sarlo have to have something to yell about or they don't feel relevant."

He says "this is a complex issue and the institutions are the people who are in the best position to be able to make that determination now to be able to find out those answers…but I'm not concerned that the cost is going to prohibitive because this is a long term investment in creating 3 centers of higher education excellence in New Jersey in Newark, in New Brunswick and in Camden - the long term benefit for the people of the state of New Jersey is going to far out-strip any short term costs that are going to happen because of the consolidation."

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As for Senator Sarlo threatening to hold up a vote on the plan, Christie stressed "that's what they do - haven't you been here a long time? They have to yell and scream to seem relevant…I'm not concerned about it- I'm really not …if I reacted every time Senator Sarlo yelled about something irrelevant - I would be in a constant state of worry."