The usual fall campaign debate goes something like this: Democrats promise more spending, and Republicans promise less and/or lower taxes. And on and on it goes. We’ve heard it all before.
This season, Jack Ciattarelli – the GOP nominee taking on Governor Phil Murphy – is hoping to take the conversation in a new direction over the final several weeks of the race. To begin with: what government do we actually need? And for the stuff we do need, is there a better way to get it done?
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“I firmly believe our state government needs to be reorganized,” Jack told me over the phone on Monday. By way of background, Save Jerseyans, I had reached out because I was intrigued by one of the many items cited during last week’s preview of his comprehensive economic plan. He’s not hard to get a hold of like many top-of-the-ticket pols. He’s genuinely excited to talk about these things.
For example? A CPA by training, Ciattarelli insists it’s illogical to keep transportation-related departments and agencies separate.
“The MVC is a revenue producing agency, and we have other agencies like NJ Transit that are, too, so why not put all of them under one roof?” Ciattarelli said. “Should the Department of Health be under the Department of Humans Services? Should the State Police be out from under the Attorney General? Should the Department of Education be split up since higher education is a very different animal than K-12 education?”
In Ciattarelli’s mind, big ideas are both a practical and political imperative. He thinks the state needs big solutions, and he’s also convinced that promise-weary, perennially-jilted Garden State voters will respond to hearing something different.
“Overall, we need to decrease the size and scope of government, but we also need to consider a realignment,” he added. It’s a taboo topic in a state where public sector unions like the CWA weild enormous political power, bullying Democrats and some Republicans into avoiding tough budget takes.
He also acknowledges that some of what he wants to accomplish will require the legislature’s cooperation while other realignment actions might be possible to accomplish by executive action, “so it’s a discussion that needs to be had.” The legislature will more-than-likely remain in Democrat control come January. Chris Christie famously (or infamously, depending upon your perspective) had extensive pre-Bridgegate success advancing elements of his agenda.
Most of New Jersey’s modern governors were lawyers (Christie and McGreevey) career politicians (Whitman), or Goldman Sachs guys (Corzine and Murphy). Ciattarelli, by contrast, owned and operated two small businesses aside from his relatively short stint as an assemblyman representing LD-16. He believes biography matters when it comes to tackling some of the state’s systemic problems, most of which have been building for generations.
“This state desperately needs a hands on executive officer, and that is who I am,” he added. “Each of my cabinet officers will be held accountable, and there will be no political patronage appointments. I want professionals who are committed to streamlining and modernining state government.”
Taxes have continued to rise during all of the aforementioned governors’ tenures without a corresponding improvement in basic, day-to-day services. The MVC stands out as a glaring example with which every resident has personal, painful first hand experience. Unemployment is another impacting thousands since the pandemic lockdown began in early 2020; our system was recently ranked as the nation’s least accessible, and Phil Murphy has repeatedly refused to invest significant monies to fix it, favoring other priorities including free lawyers for illegal aliens.
“Spending has increased $11 billion over four budgets; that’s a 30% increase. If there was ever a time to look at this, it’s now. Taxpayers might be more tolerant of Murphy’s tax increases if they were delivering on fundamental services, but they’re not. It’s infuriating.”
There’s no doubt that the Republican challenger plans to be hands on if he wins in November, perhaps in a way we haven’t seen in the front office. Murphy is known to be a relatively hands-off manager. It might be the CPA or businessman in Ciattarelli, but he’s already focusing on the details, and by “details” we’re talking about items that few governors pay any attention to.
“There should be very few things you need to go to the MVC for,” said Jack, adding that he would dramatically expand ‘Skip the Trip’ to include most services. “And no more license plates on front of cars, and we’re not going to charge our volunteer firefighters extra to get a firefighters’ license plates.”
Like I said: he’s got no shortage of ideas.
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