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.”
|