Christie's Endless Summer Tour Sails Into LBI

Governor Chris Christie brought his Endless Summer Tour for Tax Reform to Long Beach Island on Thursday.

He spoke to an overflow crowd that filled the pavilion and lined the boardwalks on either side of Bayview Park in Long Beach Township’s Brant Beach section.

Christie began his commentary outlining the bipartisanship in Trenton that had accomplished items like tenure reform and scaling down the size of government.

But he quickly went back into attack mode on the “Corizine Democrats” when it came to tax reform.

 “The Democrats need to come off the beach, just for one day, and pass the tax cut,” he said.

Christie also took a swipe at fellow conservative Bill O'Reilly, who has chided him for not passing Jessica's Law that would further punish sex offenders.

“Bill O’Reilly is crazy,“ he said, adding that he would approve a Jessica's Law bill if proposed.

"If they send it, I will sign it," he said. "O’Reilly needs to open his ears and listen.”

Christie said taxes are one of the main reasons people and businesses are leaving the state for the surrounding states of New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware where taxes are lower.

“When you have a choice between paying around 3 percent as opposed to 9 percent here in New Jersey, where are you going to choose to live or work?” he said.

During the question and answer session following his call for tax cuts, the governor fielded questions on a variety of topics including some local issues such as beach replenishment vs. eminent domain, developing an aquaculture economy in Barnegat Bay and the contentious issue of consolidation.