Christie Says Gays Don’t Trust NJ Voters { He Will Veto Legislation}

Governor Christie's Town Meeting

 Gov. Chris Christie this morning touched on gay marriage, merit pay and tax reform before a friendly town hall crowd at a technical school in Morris County, where he’s lived for 20 years.
The Republican governor broke no new ground when asked if he could offer incentives for towns to approve medical marijuana farms or dispensaries, but he said the flawed bill is what happens when the Democrat-controlled Legislature hurries bills through at the end of a session.
More than 100 bills were sent to his desk last month. “You can imagine what great precision was used in passing those bills,” he said. “It was a pile of crap, I vetoed most of it.”

  Assembly Democratic spokesman Tom Hester Jr. said bills for veterans with post traumatic stress, cancer medication, services for sexually exploited children, extended unemployment benefits and combating child abuse are unworthy of what he called a "vulgar characterization."

"These were responsible bills pushed forward by legislators responsibly meeting the needs of their constituents," he said. "If he can’t understand that, then he is more out-of-touch than anyone thought.”

As lawmakers in the Assembly today hear testimony on the legalization of gay marriage, Denville resident Marisol Rodriguez asked Christie if he would keep his promise to “protect marriage.”
Christie repeated his vow to veto any bill that passes both chambers and pointed his call for a referendum in the fall. Voters have taken up in the issue 31 times in other states, he said, leaving out the fact that it’s never passed at the ballot box.
“The fact is they don’t trust the people of New Jersey to decide,” he said of Garden State same-sex marriage advocates.
Asked by a junior at Morris County School of Technology about his stance on merit pay for teachers, Christie said teachers would be evaluated based in part on student improvement, not just test scores.
The hour-and-a-half long event also gave Christie an opportunity to explain his recent gaffs without referring to them explicitly.
Last week he suggested a referendum could have achieved the goals of the civil rights movement in the 50s and 60s, and this week in trying to clarify he called one of his Democratic detractors a “numbnuts.” This week he apologized for being unclear, but stood behind his characteristic use of colorful language.
nj.com



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