'Let me help you pack!'
As with Veronique de Rugy, this is my favorite Gov. Chris Christie line and one that a lot of Americans can get behind. Christie told one of the state's top administrators "Let me help you pack" when that administrator commented publicly that he could leave New Jersey and go to another state if his $242,000 total compensation were to be capped under the governor's proposed rule:
[...] The governor reacted to Seitz's veiled threats to leave New Jersey and go to a nearby state where there is no state salary. "I will say in response to Mr. Seitz, "Let me help you pack." We have real problems in our state that we have to fix and we don't have the time, nor the money, nor the patience any longer for people who put themselves before our citizens," Christie railed.Polls show that Christie strong support of New Jerseyans in his continuous verbal battle with the statewide teachers union over how to improve public schools while cutting costs and unloading bad teachers.
Christie's line is one that policymakers in state capitals from coast to coast should be telling public-sector unions, as we clamp down on their outlandish salaries, benefits and political influence - all at great cost to taxpayers. As Daniel DeSalvo aptlly points out at National Affairs, the cost of public-sector pay and benefits (which in many cases far exceed what comparable workers earn in the private sector), combined with hundreds of billions of dollars in unfunded pension liabilities for retired government workers, are weighing down state and city budgets. And staggering as these burdens seem now, they are actually poised to grow exponentially in the years ahead. If policymakers fail to rein in this growth, a fiscal crack-up will be the inevitable result.
You can watch the video of the governor singling out Seitz - here.
As for Dr. Leroy Seitz ... "poster boy for all that’s wrong with the public school system that is being dictated by greed" (image below), he can be reached at:lseitz@pthsd.k12.nj.us. Perhaps he needs to hear the simple message "We'll all help you pack."
Christie makes it personal
By: David Freddoso
Online Opinion Editor
11/10/10 2:55 PM EST
This new video of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, R, is mandatory viewing, as always. In this installment, he singles out a school administrator who went to some lengths to avoid the new $175,000 salary cap.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/christie-makes-it-personal-107057143.html#ixzz155Zmo5jv
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