TRENTON – Senate Deputy Majority Leader and Budget and Appropriations Committee Chairman, Senator Paul A. Sarlo, issued the following statement today after attending yesterday’s swearing-in of Christopher J. Christie to serve as New Jersey’s Governor:
“I’d like to offer my congratulations to the new Governor, and my hope that we will be able to work together for the benefit of the people that call New Jersey home.
“Yesterday’s ceremony struck an important and necessary bipartisan tone, and as we prepare for the many challenges that lie ahead – particularly when it comes to improving our State’s financial health and lowering our highest-in-the-nation property taxes – we need to look past partisan labels and accept good ideas, no matter where they come from. The campaigns are over, and though I expect we will still have ideological disagreements from time to time, whether we’re Democrats or Republicans, we’re all in this together when it comes to our State’s economic well-being and chronic budgetary problems.
“As we look to close a multi-billion dollar budget deficit for the upcoming fiscal year, we must protect the middle-class taxpayers and small businesses that are struggling to weather this recession.
“I think Governor Christie understands just how dire the situation is for everyday New Jerseyans, and I look forward to working with him, as well as lawmakers on the Senate and Assembly budget committees, to make sure the budget takes into account the economic reality facing middle-class New Jersey. Our budget picture is bleak, but we must come at it with a level of compassion for hard-hit taxpayers and common sense solutions which will improve our State’s economy in the long-term.”