What Will Govenor Christie Do About The NJ Budget? [AUDIO]

By law, New Jersey must have a balanced state budget in place by midnight tomorrow.

Most political insiders have assumed Governor Christie would simply line-item veto spending increases in the democratic budget he's been presented with, but last night on Townsquare Media's Ask The Governor show, Christie said nothing has been decided.

When asked about the possibility of a government shutdown, the Governor simply said, "I'm not done reviewing the budget yet, I'm keeping every one of my options open and available to me, Constitutionally, in terms of what I might do...I'm going to make that decision before midnight on Saturday- but when I'm going to do it- when I'm ready to decide, I'll decide."

Christie was then asked about the possibility of ordering the Legislature back into a special summer session - to reexamine his call for a guaranteed tax cut.

He said, "Here's the one thing you should know already about me - I don't tell anyone what I'm doing until I have to- so when I make my decisions about what I wanna do, I'll let everybody know about it."

• All the latest on the NJ Budget Battle
• A complete video and audio replay of "Ask The Governor"

The Governor stressed no matter what happens in the coming days and weeks, he's not going to cut off communication with Legislative leaders Steve Sweeney and Sheila Oliver."

"They're the duly elected representatives of the democratic party," said Christie, "You bet I'm going to continue to try to work with them and where I can find compromise I will, cause that's what I get paid to do...I can't afford to act like a teenager who's had his heart broken, okay?...What am I supposed to do, go in the corner and hold my breath and say I'm not talking to him anymore? He's the Senate President - and so we have to work together, we do work together..We've done a lot of good things together, and I like him, and I trust him...But if they ask me to compromise my principals and raise taxes - and not cut taxes- to hell with that - I'm not doing it."