Commission Approves Christie’s Palace

Today the Statehouse Commission voted 7-0 with one abstention to approve Governor Christie’s four-year renovation plan for the Statehouse in Trenton. The plan would cost $300 million and be funded by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA). Today’s approval by the Approval by the Joint Management Commission is the next step in the process that was announced in November. New Jersey Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel released the following statement:

“The Statehouse Commission has voted against the people of New Jersey by supporting these renovations; this is a shameful way to spend tax dollars. Why is it costing so much to renovate a building but the state can’t find the funs to stop children from being poisoned by lead? Governor Christie is clearly more concerned about promoting himself nationally than fixing the problems of our state and taking care of the people of New Jersey. We should be spending money on updating the state’s drinking water infrastructure to keep lead and toxins out of our children or buying out homes on flood-prone properties to protect communities. Instead, the Governor would rather fund a useless project to make him look good. Its unconscionable that there’s no money available to help stop children from getting lead poisoning but there’s enough funding to consider building Christie’s palace.

“Christie has never worked to help the working-class people of New Jersey. He has cut back important programs while giving the American Dream more than $1 billion of taxpayer money to build an unnecessary mall in the Meadowlands. This is part of his 7.5 billion subsidies he’s given out over the years. All of this money could clearly be better spent on building new schools, taking lead of our drinking water, and cleaning up our toxic sites, but instead he sold out the taxpayers. At the same time he has stolen millions of dollars from environmental settlements, which has robbed the people living in communities impacted from pollution. After seven years of destruction in New Jersey, it is not a surprise that Christie one of the lowest rated Governors in state history.

“While New Jersey is broke and going bankrupt, it is shameful that Christie is spending $300 million on making the Statehouse look prettier. There are so many important programs in New Jersey that need the money. We should be funding Brownfield remediation projects to clean up toxic sites or combined sewer overflows. There are 3,000 people who are unemployed because we have failed to fund the Transportation Trust Fund. All of this money could clearly be better spent on building new schools, taking lead of our drinking water, and cleaning up our toxic sites.

“People are outraged by the Governor’s selfish actions. When he tried to pass his dirty book deal that would have given him a big tax break and the ability to make money at the expense of the people of New Jersey, the people spoke out. They also stood up against his plan to privatize Liberty State Park because it showed the Governor was clearly taking care of himself instead of fixing the problems in the state. Christie continues to work for the wealthy and for himself by supporting expensive projects that don’t benefit the people of New Jersey.”