By Art Gallagher | MoreMonmouthMusings
In his OpEd published this morning, former Kean and Whitman Administration spokesman Carl Golden makes the case why it is safe for New Jersey’s Republican legislators to defy Governor Chris Christie and join the Democratic majority in overriding Christie’s of the Port Authority reform legislation.
The two identical bills that Governors Christie and Cuomo vetoed on the Saturday between Christmas and New Years Day had passed overwhelmingly with bi-partisan support in both houses of the New Jersey and New York legislatures. The bills would have required increased transparency and accountability on the part of Port Authority of NY/NJ.
In vetoing the bills, Christie and Cuomo endorsed reforms proposed by a panel they had appointed and urged both legislatures to adopt them instead. But as Golden noted in his OpEd, the vetoes have been widely viewed as maintaining the status quo of disfunctionality, wasteful spending and gubernatorial abuse at Port Authority.
In his five years in office, none of Christie’s vetoes have been overridden, even if the original bills passed the legislature with bi-partisan support and by veto proof majorities. Republican legislators have frequently “flip-flopped” and changed their votes to uphold the Governor’s will. As Golden explains,
The democrats have the majority in the assembly and state senate.