The Record
June 28, 2012
By John Reitmeyer and Juliet Fletcher

Governor Christie has urged reporters to “take the bat out” on a North Jersey lawmaker who’s also a widow and a grandmother, labeled a non-partisan budget analyst “Dr. Kevorkian” and called a gay lawmaker “numbnuts.”

The target of the governor’s latest attack was Wood-Ridge Democrat Paul Sarlo, whom he described as “one arrogant SOB” at a public forum Tuesday. At the same event, the governor promised Democrats that he would “kick their rear ends from one end of the state to the other.”

Name-calling is nothing new for Christie and, if anything, it’s enhanced his national persona as a straight-talking, no-nonsense Jersey guy. But a closer look suggests that there may be a more calculated purpose to it, too. Many of his most famous verbal barrages have come when he’s been on the political hot seat for one reason or another.

In six such outbursts, Christie’s rhetoric diverted attention onto an opponent — and away from a range of controversial issues. Here are those comments and the context behind them:

Target: Paul Sarlo

Christie comment: “You’ve got to be one arrogant SOB to be telling the people of New Jersey he’ll decide when you’ve been good enough to get some of your own money back.”

State House Bureau
June 21, 2012
By Melissa Hayes

A bill that would create a one-year moratorium on the approval of virtual charter schools while a task force examines them passed the Assembly Thursday.

“This task force will play an important role in determining whether virtual charter schools should play a role in the future of education in New Jersey,” Assemblyman Gordon Johnson, D-Englewood, one of the bill’s sponsors said in a statement. “It’s important to proactively examine their place in our system now instead of allowing them to proliferate without the proper oversight.”

The bill is also sponsored by Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, D-Englewood and Assemblymen Patrick Diegnan, D-Middlesex, Louis Greenwald, D-Camden, and Herb Conaway, D-Burlington.

The bill calls for a nine-member Virtual Charter School Task Force. The governor, assembly speaker and senate president would each appoint three members.

The state Department of Education has approved at least five virtual charter schools, all of which would be based in Newark, according to the bill’s sponsors.

If the task force is created, it would look at statutory and regulatory authority for the operation of virtual charters; parental involvement requirements; financial management; performance guidelines; technology guidelines; and part-time and full-time schools as well as non-profit and for-profit schools.

The group’s findings would be issued in a report to the governor and Legislature no later than March 1, 2013.

NJ Assembly Majority Leader Louis D. Greenwald on Restoring the Earned Income Tax Credit in the FY 2013 Budget from NJ Assembly Democratic Office on Vimeo.

New Jersey 101.5
June 12, 2012
By Kevin McArdle

It plays exceptionally well on the national stage when Republican Governor Christie regales crowds with stories of how he gets things done for the State of New Jersey by working with Democrats.

He doesn’t work well with every Democrat or least one Democrat doesn’t work well with Christie and that’s Assembly Democratic Leader Lou Greenwald.

Greenwald is spearheading the charge to pass a millionaires tax increase for the third time in three years to help fund property tax relief for middle class New Jerseyans. Christie vows to veto it for the third time in three years. Greenwald also confirms Democrats will delay any tax cut until they’re convinced State revenues match Christie’s estimates.

Christie says there’s no point in Democrats passing yet another millionaires tax bill because everybody knows how the movie will end.

Greenwald fires back saying, “That’s the new movie, ‘Groundhog Day’ meets ‘Dumb and Dumber’ with the Governor’s failure to understand his trickle-down economics have not worked.”

The Governor has made no secret of the fact that he will definitely veto the millionaires’ tax hike, but he’s not surprised Greenwald is pushing for it again. Christie says, “That is a man who is obsessed with raising taxes. Taxes can’t be high enough for Lou Greenwald…I know Lou. He loves to raise taxes and create new taxes. That’s really the bedrock of his career.”

http://www.politickernj.com/
June 14, 2012
By Max Pizarro

Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald, (D-6), wants Gov. Chris Christie to fully restore the state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which the governor pared down in his budget two years ago.

"It stands on its own," said Greenwald, when asked about whether his stepped-up advocacy for the tax credit should be seen as the longtime advocate's inevitable retreat from the millionaire's tax, a position that puts him at odds with the Republican governor, who promises to veto the millionaire's tax.

"We are at the same place we always were," said the majority leader, referring to the millionaire's tax.

In his proposed budget this year, Christie restores the EITC gradually over two years. Greenwald, and others, like NJ Citizen Action, want it in the budget now.

The majority leader said lawmakers are delivering their combined lists of budget priorities and noted that full restoation of the EITC has bipartisan support.

While still an advocate for the millionaire's tax, "I accept that the governor's absolute refusal, in spite of the revenue numbers. I think that is alarming given how we are committed to giving property tax relief that the governor wants to continue to give tax breaks to millionaires."