Chris Christie: I'm Leaving NJ in Better Shape Than 8 Years Ago

Outgoing New Jersey Governor Chris Christie touted his record of making New Jersey a far better state than the one he inherited 8 years ago, the Republican wrote in a column for The Wall Street Journal.

Christie laid out the four major ways he accomplished all of that, including rebuffing Democrats.

"We stopped all kinds of bad ideas coming out of the Democratic legislature, vetoing a record 584 bills so far, without a single override," the termed-out Christie wrote.

The other three:

• We "enforced fiscal responsibility in its annual budgets," resulting in $2 billion less in discretionary spending from 9 years ago.
• "We introduced conservative tax policies to the highest-taxed state in America," including tax cuts and eliminating "the worst estate tax in America."
• "We aggressively reformed an underfunded pension system" that has "stopped the bleeding."

"There is no question that New Jersey is a lower-taxed, more fiscally responsible and more conservative state than it was eight years ago," Christie wrote for the Journal. "Anyone who says otherwise encourages the type of absolutism that is currently causing the tumult in Washington and doesn't know the facts."

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