‘Stupid’ Doggie Seat-Belt Bill Won’t Get Christie Backing
New Jersey’s cats and dogs won’t have to submit to seatbelt-like harnesses when they ride in the car so long as Chris Christie is governor.
Christie said he won’t sign a “stupid” proposal pending in the Legislature that would require motorists to secure the animals while in moving vehicles.
Democrats who control the Senate and General Assembly are wasting their time with the measure, said the first-term Republican confronting a shortfall in revenue and whose constituents face the highest residential property taxes in the nation and the worst unemployment rate in three decades.
“This will tell you everything you need to know about how New Jersey runs under the Democrats,” Christie, 50, said yesterday in his monthly “Ask the Governor” broadcast on Ewing-based WKXW-FM radio. “They’re actually spending their time on this.”
“Let’s not cut taxes,” Christie said. “Let’s not plug the holes in the property-tax cap. Let’s not get shared services so we can reduce property taxes. Let’s not pass ethics reform so these part-time legislators will have to tell you what money they’re getting and where they’re getting it from.”
Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer, a Newark Democrat who owns a Pomeranian named A.J. along with five cats and a rabbit, introduced the bill to require the harnesses for animals not being transported in cages. Violators would get a $25 ticket that might escalate to higher fines.
No Signature
If the bill makes it through the Legislature for him to sign into law, Christie said, he wouldn’t put “my name near something that stupid.”
Spencer, 44, a liability-law attorney, said securing animals is “a bigger issue than people realize,” comparing it with distractions such as texting while driving.
Christie is pressing for a tax cut to help create jobs. Revenue collections in the first two months of the fiscal year are almost $100 million behind the governor’s forecast, according to the state Treasury.
New Jersey’s credit outlook was lowered last week to negative by Standard & Poor’s.
To contact the reporter on this story: Elise Young in Trenton at eyoung30@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman at smerelman@bloomberg.net
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie
Scott Eells/Bloomberg
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said, “This will tell you everything you need to know about how New Jersey runs under the Democrats.”
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said, “This will tell you everything you need to know about how New Jersey runs under the Democrats.” Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg
Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -– Dave Marmelstein, a dog owner and resident of Hamilton Township, New Jersey, talks with Bloomberg’s Terrence Dopp about a proposed state law that would require motorists to secure dogs and felines with a seatbelt-like harness in vehicles. (Source: Bloomberg)
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