USA TODAY International Edition
N. J. BUDGET DEAL BRINGS AN END TO 3- DAY SHUTDOWN
Resolution prompts Gov. Christie to say he’ll return to the beach, now open
New Jersey’s government shutdown ended Monday after a deal on a state budget, a rewrite of the rules for the state’s largest health insurer, and the national mocking of Gov. Chris Christie thanks to images of him lounging in a chair on a beach closed to the public amid the lockdown he ordered.
Christie signed the $ 34.7 billion budget early Tuesday.
Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto and Senate President Stephen Sweeney made the deal public in a news conference ahead of planned votes. That followed meetings with executives from Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, the state’s largest insurance company whose fate is central to the budget standoff that prompted the state shutdown.
“At the end of the day, we have one hell of a budget we can be proud of,” Sweeney said after first apologizing for the disruption in state services caused by the shutdown. “We wish we didn’t have to do this, but it was part of getting a deal done.”
Sweeney said he expected most state operations to be ready for Tuesday morning, meaning the parks and beaches closed over the weekend would be available to the public for the July Fourth holiday.
“I’m saddened that it’s three days late, but I’ll sign the budget tonight,” Christie said at his own news conference to announce the deal.
The agreement with the Democratic leaders in the Legislature does not get what Christie had initially called for in February, notably a dedicated fund to stem the opioid addiction crisis, paid for from Horizon’s surplus account.
“That’s what I wish would have happened,” Christie said. “I gave in on one point, yeah, but I got a bill that reforms them significantly.”
And once the deal was done, Christie said he had plans. “I’ll go back to the beach,” he said.
Christie, who has record- low approval ratings, dismissed the criticism and ridicule that came after his beach photo. His family would always take precedence, Christie said.
“If they had flown that plane over that beach and I was sitting next to a 25- year- old blonde in that beach chair next to me, that’s a story,” he said. “I wasn’t. ... I was sitting next to my wife of 31 years.”
The bill would cap Horizon’s reserves and the excess be returned to ratepayers, not to a fund dedicated to drug treatment, as Christie originally proposed.