Meeting with Governor-Elect Chris Cristie and Lieutenant Governor Elect Kim Guadagno

By Lynn A. Conover, CPA

On Friday, November 6, 2009, I had the honor of attending a roundtable discussion with Governor-Elect Chris Christie and Lieutenant Governor-Elect Kim Guadagno.  The meeting took place at Guttenplan’s frozen dough plant in the heart of the Northern Monmouth County area.  There, the Governor-elect and Lt. Governor-elect heard from  Northern Monmouth business owners representing many industries including tourism and entertainment, employment, insurance, real estate, transportation, retail, lending  and accounting.   The meeting, which lasted just over an hour, covered topics such as costs of unemployment and workers compensation insurance, environmental regulations, tourism taxes, the lack of tourism advertising and more.

The meeting occurred immediately after the elections during that week.  Christie and Guadagno were ready to roll up their sleeves and dig into governing mode once the grandstanding and showmanship of the elections had ended.  They were there to listen to the concerns of the business owners and representatives and took copious notes during that meeting.  Christie indicated the he does not think the people of New Jersey expect that Gaudagno and he have all the answers and he will assure them that they don’t.  He offered few details on how they would tackle the big issues, but he was going to listen first.  They encouraged the business people at the roundtable to email their continuing concerns along with their proposals for fixing the problems.    

Some of the specific issues discussed at the roundtable were as follows:

For tax years beginning January 1, 2009, Governor Corzine has enacted an individual tax surcharge of 10.25% for taxable income between $500,000 and $1 million and 10.75% for taxable income greater than $1,000,000.  This surcharge is set to expire on June 30, 2010.  Governor-elect Christie vows that if the legislature sends this surcharge back to him to extend, it will be vetoed.  He will find other ways to cut costs to make up for the loss of income. 

Christie’s financial team is meeting with Treasury officials to go over budget figures in an attempt to keep spending in line as state revenue numbers continue to fall.  He indicated that Governor Corzine has agreed to ask his administration to cut $400 million in expenses from the 2009/2010 budget.  The governor-elect also would like to see monthly revenue projections to return and in effort to more closely match expenditures to income. 

A concern was raised at the meeting regarding the high cost of health insurance for self employed individuals who are ineligible for group plan rates.  Governor-elect Christie would push to open the health insurance market perhaps to competition from out of state companies quickly as well as roll back mandates on coverage so that insurance companies could offer cheaper policies. 

Governor-elect Christie and Lieutenant Governor-elect Kim Guadagno have a huge task at hand to right the wrongs with our state budget and financial woes.  Putting a positive foot forward, they area reaching out to the business representatives in the State of New Jersey and asking for their help.  They realize they cannot do this alone.  Christie said at the meeting “I’m not sitting here saying I’m the biggest genius in New Jersey.  Get your comments in.”