Chris Christie wants to fine $10,000 for telling the unauthorized truth about his budget numbers.
Governor Christie signed an executive order seeking more state budget transparency in 2010, but now he wants to slap a $10,000 fine on those who release New Jersey revenue data beyond his administration’s official reports.
Christie proposed the fine Friday as part of a conditional veto of legislation put forward by Democrats. The move came at the end of a week of bad economic news for the Republican governor, including another poor unemployment survey, a disappointing revenue report and a downgrade of the state’s credit outlook on Wall Street.
Democrats immediately linked Christie’s plan to establish the $10,000 fine — roughly equivalent to those levied for minor drug possession, shoplifting and some assaults — to the governor’s verbal attacks on David Rosen, the budget officer with the state’s non-partisan Office of Legislative Services.
Just last week, Rosen, responding to a request from Democratic lawmakers, issued a revenue update on the last budget indicating that Christie missed his revenue targets by about $250 million. Christie called the move “blatantly political” and said it makes more sense to wait for the official audit due months from now.
-more-
http://www.northjersey.com/news/politics/Christie_proposes_10000_fine_for_unauthorized_release_of_NJ_revenue_data.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
