Coming Soon: A Jersey Government Shutdown?
Newark Star-Ledger reports: “State Senate President Stephen Sweeney today said he is willing to shut down state government if Gov. Chris Christie doesn’t support a budget that contains the payment into the public employee pension fund they both promised to make when they approved a major overhaul of the program three years ago. ‘If we have to shut the government down, we would,’ Sweeney told The Star-Ledger editorial board. ‘I stand by that, and I mean it. I made a commitment, and I’ve got to keep it.'”
Christie’s office has no comment. The Star-Ledger observes: “Gov. Jon Corzine shut down the state government for a week in 2006 following a budget impasse with the Democratic-controlled Legislature, idling more than 100,000 workers and closing everything from casinos to courts to state parks. New laws that have passed since then stipulate that casinos would not be closed again under a state shutdown.”