New Jerseys and Chris Christie

Chris Christie: The state must have a 2015 spending plan in place six weeks from now, and Christie has proposed New Jerseys biggest budget ever, at $34.4 billion. More pressing is a 2014 shortfall of $807 million, mostly from missed estimates on income-tax collections, that needs to be filled by June 30, according to Bloomberg. Going from one year to the next and then trying to put out one fire after another doesnt instill a lot of confidence, said Cure, whose New York-based firm oversees $5.2 billion and Chris Christie told a fiscal summit in Washington last week that the traffic scandal dogging his administration will be a career footnote. New Jerseys governor may be right, as revenue shortfalls, credit downgrades and rising pension costs threaten to define his legacy. Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff goes before Senate and Assembly budget committees this week to explain Christies next move. Investors are tiring of overly optimistic revenue estimates and pension and health-care expenses crowding out other budget needs, said Howard Cure, head of municipal research at Evercore Wealth Management LLC. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.