For a governor running for president, when the economic fortunes of the city most Americans associate with your state are so bad that even Donald Trump is suing to get his name off of two large casinos there, you know you have a problem.
Such is the case with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie amid news last week that two more huge casinos are shuttering, bringing the job losses in Atlantic City to more than 8,000 this year.
Christie is in a bad spot as shepherd of a Garden State economy, which ranks right near the bottom of the heap among the 50 states in every economic metric.
New Jersey residents know this and it’s a big topic “down the shore” in the adult, non-Snooki circles.
If Christie launches a run for president, the rest of the country will hear a tutorial on just what a laggard Jersey has become.
The proof is in the moving. According to an annual survey by Forbes, New Jersey ranks No. 1 among the states Americans are fleeing, and it’s secured that top spot on the outbound list three of the past four years.
New Jersey’s problems go far beyond the Atlantic City shore. While the US economy has painstakingly restored the job losses incurred in the wake of the financial crisis, New Jersey has regained just over half its employment losses.
About 100,000 fewer New Jerseyans have jobs today than they did at the start of the millennium, as high-paying manufacturing jobs collapsed in the state. How’s that for a campaign slogan?
Gov. Christie chooses to blame his predecessor, Jon Corzine, for the slide, but he has done little to reverse the tide or the taxes.
Meanwhile, New Jersey’s $40 billion in unfunded pension liabilities threaten further downgrades of the Garden State’s credit rating, which has already been chopped twice under Christie’s reign.
Yes, with the national economy flat-lining, New Jersey residents are falling well below that line.
Maybe “The Donald” should challenge “The Governor” to a pay-per-view debate on how to fix the state’s economy. It would be an epic battle of egos for the ages.
That, at least, would bring a little bit of revenue into the state’s coffers.