Read the original story in The New York Post
A day after his dramatic victory over Gov. Jon Corzine, Republican Gov.-elect Chris Christie said yesterday his top priorities in office are slashing New Jersey's highest-in-the-country property taxes and solving its budget woes.
"We've got a lot of work to do, and we're going to do it," Christie told reporters after touring the Robert Treat Academy, a successful Newark charter school that he championed on the campaign trail.
"I'm going to go in with an optimistic point of view. The voters obviously spoke very clearly last night," said Christie, who beat the unpopular Corzine, 49 percent to 44 percent.
However, Christie cautioned that the state's problems -- which include soaring unemployment, sky-high property taxes and a ballooning state budget deficit -- will take time to fix.
"We didn't get to this problem overnight," Christie said.
"This is a tough problem that has to take long-term, systematic, systemic change. There is no magic here. We tried the magic wand and that didn't work," he said. "We're going to do it the right way."
To cut the budget, Christie said he wants a "tight cap" on local spending and a freeze on unfunded mandates on local governments.
When asked if he saw a national significance to his win -- which is being hailed by the GOP as a rebuke to Obama -- Christie said he was just focused on governing the Garden State.
"Listen, my job in 76 days is to be the governor of the state of New Jersey. What else is going on in the other 49 states, let them have it. I have enough on my plate given the mess in this state and how broken it is."
Accompanied by his wife, Mary Pat, and two of his four children, Christie said the plight of the state's urban schools would also be a high priority in his administration, after taxes and the budget.
He urged the kids at Robert Treat to work hard and strive for their goals.
"You leave here with the chance to achieve any dream, any aspiration that you have in your life," he said.
When he arrived, children from a nearby preschool waved small American flags and chanted, "Hip, hip, hooray!"
"I'm excited, because it's the first place he's coming to and he's not even governor yet," said student Eugene Ramos, 13.
"We didn't think somebody so big would come here," said Anbi Diaz, 13.
Results released yesterday from the state's Division of Elections show that Corzine, who spent more than $20 million on the campaign, garnered fewer votes in each of the state's 21 counties than he did when he won in 2005.
Christie won 12 counties to amass a margin of victory of about 100,000 votes. Turnout was down from 49 percent to 45 percent.
Independent voters, who narrowly favored Obama last year, strongly supported Christie over Corzine.
Independent voters "are very performance-oriented. They just want to know what have you done for me lately or what have you done to me lately," said Merle Black, a political science professor at Emory University in Atlanta.
jennifer.fermino@nypost.com
