Christie calls school budget defeats ‘watershed moment’

TRENTON - Gov. Christie today called voters' overwhelming rejection of school budgets statewide Tuesday a "watershed moment" for New Jersey, saying it gives the state an opportunity to make real, fundamental change.

Christie said 58 percent of school budgets statewide were turned down, the highest percentage in state history.

"Voters have spoken loudly and clearly," Christie said in a noon news conference in the governor's outer office in the state capitol building. He called the vote a "statewide referendum on taxes and spending in New Jersey."

The vote marks a striking political victory for the governor, who had urged voters in school districts where teachers had not agreed to reopen union contracts and accept salary freezes to reject school budgets.

Christie has proposed cutting state aid to schools for the fiscal year that begins July 1 by $820 million, an amount he said would be almost completely replaced if teachers agreed to wage freezes.

Of the school districts where teachers accepted salary freezes, 79 percent of budgets passed, the governor said. In districts where teachers did not accept salary freezes, only 41 percent passed.

School budgets that were rejected move next to municipal governments, which will decide whether they should be revised. Christie said he expects local officials have heard the message sent by voters Tuesday. Elected officials, he said, don't ignore election results, they absorb them.

Voters in Burlington, Camden and Gloucester Counties mirrored the state, rejecting most school budgets. Read more at http://www.philly.com/inquirer/breaking/news_breaking/20100421_Most_school_budgets_fail_in_S__Jersey.html