Christie’s proposal comes after deliberations between his administration and New Jersey’s largest teachers union, one of Christie’s most bitter rivals, which has signed on to the roadmap that will serve as the basis for Christie’s proposal. Christie’s office characterized the collaboration with the union as “groundbreaking,” but the New Jersey Education Association is being cautious, emphasizing that there is still no agreement and that the two parties are just having conversations.
Christie will call on the state legislature Tuesday to tackle the state’s pension woes and will tell lawmakers that he is “committed to working with each and every one of you in good faith to make a promise to the people of this state that we will not push this off,” according to excerpts of his speech provided by the governor’s office.
New Jersey would funnel $1.3 billion into the state’s pension fund under Christie’s budget proposal, according to the governor’s office, which characterized the proposal as the “largest single pension payment” in the state’s history.
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“He’s taken a bad situation and made it dramatically worse,” Wollmer said. “He can’t take credit for much here because the problem that we’re trying to solve, he helped create.”
CNN’s Ashley Killough contributed to this report.
