Christie’s time is running out as governor — what he hopes to accomplish

With only a few months left before he leaves office, Gov. Chris Christie plans to focus a lot of his energy on fighting New Jersey’s drug abuse epidemic.

“The opioid crisis is an enormous priority for me — has been for a while and will continue to be throughout,” Christie said. “The opioid crisis though will be the prime focus of my time and my attention, because too many people in the state are dying and everything we can do to slow that down is something I will be attempting to do.”

The governor said he would also like to resolve a few issues he considers to be very important, but he’ll need the help of the Legislature — and on some issues, he and other lawmakers don't see eye to eye.

“I would still like to work with lawmakers to craft legislation that would do away with sick time payouts for public workers,” he said.

In 2010, the Legislature sent Christie a bill that would have capped sick time payouts for all public workers at $15,000, mimicking a limit already in place for state workers. Christie vetoed the bill, insisting on removing the payouts altogether. Ultimately, neither happened.

“It’s a disgrace that we have billions of dollars being paid to people for not having been sick. It’s a disgrace," Christie said. "It’s an outrage to the taxpayers. I’ve been saying it for 8 years.”

Legislation to do away with sick time payouts has stalled in committee.

Another item on the Christie wish list is to extend the interest arbitration cap, which expires on Dec. 31.

The cap holds salary increases for public sector workers by arbitrators in New Jersey to 2 percent annually, when union contracts are renegotiated.

“You talk to any mayor in this state, Republican, Democrat or independent, and they will tell you that needs to be done,” said the governor.

“I’ll tell you this, if the interest (arbitration) cap does not get put back in place, property taxes, which have gone up on average over the last 7 years of 2 and a quarter percent, will go back to their 7 percent increases that happened in the 10 years before that," Christie said.

Christie added: “I don’t believe in unlimited pay increases for public sector workers.”

For years municipal leaders have warned if the cap isn’t renewed, it could force property taxes even higher, and possibly reduce local town staffing levels.

Legislation to extend the cap past the Dec. 31 deadline has been stalled in the Assembly.

Christie pointed out lawmakers are on an extended break until November, so “my ability to do things is limited by what I can do through executive authority without them around, and there’s a campaign to replace me going on. This is not the opportunity to start a whole bunch of new initiatives, you know.”

You can contact reporter David Matthau at David.Matthau@townsquaremedia.com