(FILE) New Jersey Gov. elect Chris Christie announces Thursday, Dec. 16, 2009, in Trenton, N.J., that he is appointing Kim Guadagno, right, who will be New Jersey's first lieutenant governor, to pull double duty in the new administration by also serving as secretary of state. (AP Photo / Mel Evans) 
By ANGELA DELLI SANTI, Associated PressTRENTON, N.J. -- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie averted a shutdown of state government by paring $900 million from the budget Democrats handed him then signing the document Thursday instead of rejecting it outright. Christie enacted the $29.7 billion budget, about seven hours before the new fiscal year began. In doing so, the Republican governor aggressively used his red pen to veto spending he didn't agree with or felt the state couldn't afford.
"I will not give in to the Democrats' tax-and-spend agenda no matter how many times they and their allies and special interests demagogue me for refusing to do so," Christie said.
Democrats rejected the budget Christie proposed and drafted their own version, which fully funded public schools and appropriated money for a host of programs and services for the poor and middle class that Christie cut last year. The Democrats' version was about $1 billion higher than Christie's proposal.But the governor harangued the majority for sending him a budget that he said was illegal. He said it overestimated the amount of tax revenue the state is likely to collect in the year ahead.
The governor said he wouldn't sign the plan as is, but took less than a day to decide to line-item veto the bill rather than return it to the Legislature for more work.
"An unconstitutional budget - if signed in its current form - would step on the hard-won progress made over the last year and a half to right New Jersey's fiscal course over the long term and instead embraces Trenton's previous addiction to spending," he said.
The budget Christie signed adds $150 million in public school aid on top of his original budget and keeps $447 million for the state's poorest schools, which was ordered by the state Supreme Court. It also makes a $468 million contribution to the pension fund for government workers, the first in a few years.
But he red-lined many items including a $50 million Democratic add-on for crime-fighting initiatives.
Christie's budget cuts $139 million in aid to cities, slashes salaries in the Senate and Assembly by a combined $3.8 million and makes a $7 million reduction in an AIDS drug distribution program.
He also cuts medical services for the aged, tuition aid grants and a host of other programs and services.
He vetoed $7.5 million for family planning clinics, but added an equal amount for Federal Qualified Health Centers, which perform some of the same services for women but not family planning.
Democrats defended their budget as constitutional and said it was more compassionate and humane than the one the governor signed.
Democrats can attempt to override the governor's actions, but they will need help from some Republicans to succeed.
"This budget is cruel and mean-spirited to prove a point that he's in charge," Senate President Stephen Sweeney said. "Well, guess what, we are going to fight back. We are going to make the arguments and prove a point that this is not right for the taxpayers of this state."
Sweeney, who earlier this week bucked a majority of his party to enact sweeping pension and health benefits changes for public workers that Christie advocated, said he was deeply disappointed with the governor's budget.
Christie said he was being practical.
"The reason I cut every one of these programs is we can't afford them," he said. "I'd love to do most of these things."
Senate Majority Leader Barbara Buono called the governor's budget "vindictive," and questioned his priorities.
"Just like last year, the governor is placing the weight of this budget around the neck of every working family," she said.
"Our schools are not being made whole, and seniors are still going to see their property taxes go up. All the while, the wealthiest New Jerseyans are still being saved from any of the governor's `shared sacrifice."' Christie vetoed outright a separate bill that would have raised the income tax rate on the state's wealthiest 16,000 filers by nearly 2 percent. He called the two-year surcharge "a small business, jobs killing tax." He had promised to reject it.
Gov. Jon Corzine shut down state government for six days in 2006 during a showdown with the Legislature over increasing the state sales tax. Motor vehicle agencies, state parks and Atlantic City's gambling halls were temporarily shuttered, prompting a subsequent law exempting casinos from a future shutdown.
Christie said he didn't prepare for a shutdown, so it would have been a messy last-minute undertaking to close down government.
"If we had to shut down, it would have been a really, gnarly, ugly shutdown because we made no preparations," he said.
(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Politics & Elections »new jersey politics, chris christie, politics & elections
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