• NJ has a $2 billion gap in this year’s budget: fiscal year 2010.
• Ex-Gov. Corzine’s budget projected a 5% growth in sales tax revenue this year (huh?).
• “Today we give change…not a happy moment…defenders of the status quo will start chattering as soon as I leave this chamber…Today’s the day for the complaining to end and the statesmanship to begin.”
• All state spending gets frozen today.
• “NJ does not have a revenue problem… Trenton’s addiction to spending and higher taxes is the road to ruin…We must and we will shrink our government.”
• Pension and benefit costs are the major drivers of our state spending. Fortune 500 companies spend 40% less on health benefits than we do. Example: a retired teacher who has paid out $62K toward her pension and nothing towards her full medical benefits will receive back from the state $1.4 million in pension payments and $215K in health benefits.
• The state’s “special interests” are screaming the same word as my 9-year-old son’s favorite word: unfair.
• To legislators: Get pension and benefits on my desk before March 16th. Unlike “former governors,” if you “do the right thing this governor will not pull the rug out from underneath you.” “Come to the center of the room and be part of the solution.” Stand up to special interests.
• This year, school aid will be cut by $475 million. 500 districts will be affected. More than 100 districts will lose all their school aid for the year. Districts must make up the difference from their surplus funds. These cuts won’t touch the classroom. (Hmm. They will next year.)
• NJ must be “a home for growth as opposed to a fiscal basket case.”
• “Union defenders” are “self-interested and wrong.”
• In total, 375 different state programs will be cut.
• “We don’t have the money: you know it and I know it.”

Update: Here’s the full text of Christie’s address, courtesy of PolitickerNJ.