Editor's Note - Reposting this story from earlier this year as part of several recent stories involving NJ Governor Chris Christie.
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Video: Governor Christie explains economics to Rita Wilson -- May 26, 2010
Great clip. Runs 2 minutes. The teacher in question, Rita Wilson, makes $86,000 per year with 4 months of paid vacation.
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As if there is nothing more to love about New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, he held a townhall in Rutherford discussing his 33-bills “tool kit” that will bring a cap on property taxes and other taxes, as well as cutting spending and regulations to spur economic growth to the state.
One teacher in the town hall Rita Wilson, an English teacher from Kearny, complained about paying one-and-a-half percent of her paycheck to pay for her benefits. The woman is crying while other people either get another job or pay much more out of their checks for their health benefits.
Governor Christie did not want any of her complaining. He told her if she didn’t like the pay freeze and paying one-and-a-half percent of her check to pay for her benefits, she can leave her job.
“I’m not a rabble-rouser. I’m a simple English teacher,” whose students perform well, Wilson said. “I work really hard.”
Wilson said she used the babysitter example to make a point as Christie has pressured teachers to take a one-year wage freeze and contribute at least 1.5 percent of their salary toward health benefits. She and Christie then testily talked over each other for several questions and answers.
“You know what, you don’t have to do it,” Christie said.
“Teachers do it because they love it,” Wilson told him.
The governor said in a time of “economic crisis,” teachers and their main union — the powerful New Jersey Education Association — should be willing to take the freeze.
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