"So with nine days to go, here’s where we stand: Christie has Republicans in lockstep support, he’s intimidated the special interests, and he’s left the Democrats divided. Not bad for a rookie governor about to face his first big test."

NJ Democrats scramble as Gov. Chris Christie draws the budget battle lines

By Tom Moran/ The Star-Ledger

March 07, 2010, 6:06AM

On March 16 he will present his proposed budget for the next fiscal year.

In nine days, Gov. Chris Christie will present a budget that attempts to reverse everything from the Corzine years.

Working families will be thrown off health care programs. Bus and train fares will go up by 25 percent. School aid will likely be slashed, a blow that will land hardest on lower-income districts that depend on Trenton most. Even unemployment checks will get the squeeze. And all that won’t get him even halfway to a balanced budget.

Democrats are watching all this and scrambling for a strategy. Should they make a fuss over Christie’s plan to cut taxes for the rich, a move that will dig the deficit deeper by about $1 billion? Should they draw the line on health care? School aid? Or should they step aside and let this charging bull have his moment?

For now, they are divided and rudderless.

In one school are those who want to confront Christie over that tax cut for families earning more than $400,0000.

Sen. Ray Lesniak, among the most influential senators, says flatly that he will not vote for a budget that includes a tax cut for the rich while the middle-class takes hard blows.

Sen. Loretta Weinberg says she can’t imagine cutting unemployment benefits with one hand, while handing tax cuts to the wealthy with the other.

Sen. Joe Vitale wants to resist as well. He designed the expansion of health programs in the Corzine years, which Christie wants to scale back.

“The governor’s priorities are upside down,” Vitale says. “That tax cut will take $1 billion out of our treasury and force cuts like this. And this is a matter of life and death for a lot of people.”

But other key Democrats worry that Christie has captured the public’s imagination with his call to shrink government. They want to wait and see, to make sure the moment is right before they take any head shots.

Sen. Paul Sarlo, chairman of the budget committee, believes the tax cut might be a good idea. He’s not sure he’ll oppose it at all. “I’m not there yet,” he says.

Other Democrats say resistance is futile, given Christie’s insistence on that tax cut.

Sweeney is keeping his options open, as careful politicians usually do. Democrats will embrace most of Christie’s spending cuts because the deficit demands it, he says. The only big play left would be to resist that tax cut to at least soften the blow.

And Democrats probably won’t do that, he says, unless groups like hospitals, school districts, and universities step up to resist as well.

So far, he sees no sign of that. He met with university officials in his office this week, and chided them for barely making a peep when Christie cut their aid by $62 million this year.

“Everyone is quiet now, hoping that if they’re good boys and girls they won’t get hurt too much,” Sweeney says. “Jon Corzine’s biggest downfall was that no one feared him. Everyone fears this guy.”

So with nine days to go, here’s where we stand: Christie has Republicans in lockstep support, he’s intimidated the special interests, and he’s left the Democrats divided.

Not bad for a rookie governor about to face his first big test.

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