A state judge found Monday that Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) unlawfully cut more than $1.5 billion from a state pension payment for government workers in order to make up a budget shortfall.
{mosads}The judge ordered Christie to make the full payment to the pension fund, but Christie has said he’ll appeal.
“Once again, liberal judicial activism rears its head with the court trying to replace its own judgment for the judgment of the people who were elected to make these decisions,” Kevin Roberts, a Christie spokesman, told The New York Times.
Christie initially took money out of the pension plan in order to balance the 2014 and 2015 budgets. The same judge signed off on the plan for 2014, as Christie only had days to balance the budget, which is required by the state constitution.
But the New Jersey governor used a line-item veto to axe the state Legislature’s proposed pension plan for 2015 and said he’d once again cut from the state’s payments into the pension plan. With the court ruling that the governor must pay the full amount, Christie and the Legislature must scramble to agree on a proposal that would balance the budget and fund the plan.
“The court is unwilling to rely on what has now become a succession of empty promises,” New Jersey Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson wrote, according to a decision posted by NJ Advance Media.
“In short, the court cannot allow the state to ‘simply walk away from its financial obligations,’ especially when those obligations were the state’s own creation.”
But Christie and the teachers have reached a compromise with the state’s largest teachers union, according to NJ Advance Media. He’ll reportedly announce during his Tuesday budget address that he’ll begin paying $1.3 billion into the pension plan.
The court decision is the latest flap for the potential 2016 presidential candidate, and the Democratic National Committee sent out news reports highlighting the decision. Christie also received criticism after accusations that a number of aides and appointees closed lanes on the George Washington Bridge for political retribution. Independent investigations have not found evidence that Christie was personally involved, but the scandal has dogged him since.