New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said he won’t sign a “stupid” proposal pending in the Legislature that would require motorists to secure dogs and cats with a seatbelt-like harness while in moving vehicles.
Lawmakers are wasting time considering the measure when the state needs tax cuts and ethics reforms, Christie said today in his monthly radio call-in show.
The first-term Republican has running battles with Democrats who control the Senate and General Assembly over how to lower the highest residential property taxes in the nation, erase a shortfall in revenue, and cut the worst unemployment rate in three decades.
“This will tell you everything you need to know about how New Jersey runs under the Democrats,” Christie, 50, said on WKXW-FM’s “Ask the Governor” broadcast from Ewing, New Jersey. “They’re actually spending their time on this.”
“Let’s not cut taxes,” he said. “Let’s not plug the holes in the property-tax cap. Let’s not get shared services so we can reduce property taxes. Let’s not pass ethics reform so these part-time legislators will have to tell you what money they’re getting and where they’re getting it from.”
Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer, a Newark Democrat who owns a Pomeranian named A.J. along with five cats and a rabbit, introduced the bill to require the harnesses for animals not being transported in cages. Violators would get a $25 ticket that might escalate to higher fines.
No Signature
If the bill makes it through the Legislature for him to sign into law, Christie said, he wouldn’t put “my name near something that stupid.”
Spencer, 44, a liability-law attorney, said securing animals is “a bigger issue than people realize,” comparing it with distractions such as texting while driving.
Christie is pressing for a tax cut that he says will help create jobs. Revenue collections in the first two months of the fiscal year are almost $100 million behind the governor’s forecast, according to the state Treasury.
New Jersey’s credit outlook was lowered last week to negative by Standard & Poor’s.
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