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Chris Christie
PI Original
by Aricka Flowers
7:18pm
Thu Nov 1, 2012

Early Voting Outlook Good For Obama, Sandy Causes Firestorm For Romney Campaign

Election 2012

Early voting numbers and poll results are not the only troublesome issues plaguing the Romney campaign this week. From Superstorm Sandy to endorsements to a controversial campaign ad, there are quite a few things that are dogging the Republican's campaign this week, just days before the election.

Quick Hit
by Micah Maidenberg
5:50pm
Fri Jan 28, 2011

Edgar, Christie, And Taxes

These days, it seems like you're more likely to see a coyote trapped on an ice floe in Lake Michigan than find a Republican willing to acknowledge Illinois' inefficient and relatively low income tax needed to be raised.

Well, the coyote thing did indeed happen. And yes, there's a big-name GOPer out there who says Illinois needed more revenues. Jim Edgar, the Republican who spent two terms in the governor's mansion in Springfield during the 1990s, agreed that the General Assembly needed to raise taxes to solve the state's mounting fiscal woes, the Daily Herald reported Wednesday. He even gave Gov. Quinn "a lot of credit" for talking about a tax increase during the gubernatorial campaign. In some ways, this isn't that surprising of a relevation. Last fall, remember, Edgar told Don Wade and Roma on their radio program that, "Our taxes, compared to most other industrial states, are low. If we're going to have low taxes, we can't spend as much."

Even with this month's tax hike, Illinois' personal income tax rate will remain lower than the rates many residents of, for example, New Jersey pay. Three out of the six tiers in the Garden State's progressive tax code are higher than Illinois' new rate of 5 percent. Perhaps Edgar could even mention this little fact to New Jersey's GOP Gov. Chris Christie, who is rumored to be coming to Illinois next week to poach state businesses based on the new tax structure here.

Quick Hit
by Micah Maidenberg
5:41pm
Tue Jan 25, 2011

Quinn Blasts Christie As Tax Rhetoric Heats Up

Republican governors around the country have had quite a time strutting about the tax deal that Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law earlier this month, and Chris Christie, the GOP governor of New Jersey, has been among those crowing the loudest. The news broke today that the Garden State is actively trying to poach Illinois businesses, feeding the usual rhetoric about taxes and New Jersey's allegedly better business climate into a new ad campaign set for Chicago and Springfield-area media outlets. The campaign inspired a strong response from Gov. Quinn. Watch this video of the governor Capitol Fax posted earlier this afternoon:

Look, the General Assembly and governor's tax deal wasn't perfect; it still doesn't address how we fund schools and services for the state's most vulnerable populations and it doesn't create a progressive tax structure (something New Jersey has in place, by the way). But no one should pretend that the new rates here -- 9.5 percent for corporations and 5 percent for individuals -- are going to spark a wholesale jobs exodus out of Illinois.

We've said it before, and we'll say it again: the quality of local workforces, consumer markets, and infrastructure play a far greater role in determining where companies set up shop. Another benefit of the tax deal, meanwhile, is it puts Illinois on the path toward stabilizing its finances, and stability is something that business operators, bond buyers, rating agencies, and the rest of us, for that matter, care about. You'd think that given New Jersey's own serious challenges, a little hubris would be appropriate. But it's easier for Christie to score political points. Or try to, anyway.

Quick Hit
by Micah Maidenberg
10:10am
Fri Oct 29, 2010

More On Brady's Buddy Christie

In his column today, the Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn examines Republican Gov. Chris Christie's performance in New Jersey, seeking clues as to how GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady may govern in Illinois should he be elected next week. Brady and Christie, of course, both have wheeled out a mish-mash of spending cuts, tax cuts, and other conservative nostrums as solutions to their respective states' budget crises.

Zorn finds that for all his bombast, Christie hasn't made much of a dent in the Garden State's $11 billion deficit, despite cutting spending by 4.2 percent in the state's most recent budget. Those cuts came primarily from education, state aid to local governments, and the end of a homeowner's tax rebate program targeted to seniors and lower- and middle-income households. On taxes, Christie has pushed through a property tax cap that will likely cause local governments to cut services down the road. And his biggest "accomplishment" on taxes has been lowering them for the state's wealthiest earners. Here's Zorn:

Christie's main achievement so far in this area has been to allow an income-tax surcharge on those earning more than $400,000 to expire, and to veto legislation that would have kept that surcharge only on those who earn more than $1 million a year.

While Christie's style -- blasting unions and talking "tea party tough" -- has raised his national profile, the substance of his policies aren't solving New Jersey's fiscal challenges. In this, Christie and Brady are clearly birds of a feather. For more on their connections, be sure to also check out our piece about infrastructure from yesterday and Zorn's round-up of links about the New Jersey governor.