At the second New Jersey gubernatorial debate, the three candidates may all have agreed that Bruce Springsteen is their favorite N.J. rocker and that the New York Giants — which they agreed should be from the state — are better than the Philadelphia Eagles.
But the three expressed differences on the revitalization of the Meadowlands Sports Complex, gay marriage and higher education at the debate on Friday at William Patterson University in Wayne, N.J.
Democratic candidate Gov. Jon S. Corzine relayed his past work to make higher education more affordable in the state.
“We have increased tuition aid grants to our students by about $100 million over the last three and a half years,” Corzine said.
This has helped students pay for the increasing tuition, he said.
The NJ STARS program, which pays for high-achieving students in the community to transfer to a public state college of their choice after two years, has expanded from 900 to 4,600 students, he said. His administration has also capped public university tuition increases at 3 percent — one of the lowest in the nation.
The government must help students pay for tuition, but also be aware of the constraints the state faces on its budget, he said.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie said the state throughout the past decade has not helped high education institutions.
The grants do not help alleviate the high tuition and fees students face, making education a top economic issue for this election, he said.
It is important to keep students in the state because then they are more likely to raise a family and work here when they graduate, Christie said. This fall, 33,000 New Jersey students left the state to go to college elsewhere and it tears families apart.
“Higher education isn’t just an important economic issue, it’s an important family issue as well,” Christie said.
Independent candidate Chris Daggett said the state is the worst in the nation in terms of investing in higher education, as New Jersey has disinvested throughout the past decade.
“It’s shameful. We are putting ourselves in the positions where our best students — some of them are staying here and it’s great— are going out of state,” Daggett said.
While tuition aid grants help alleviate costs for students, it does not solve the deficits many colleges face, he said.
“The state colleges have to borrow money, and they now collectively have something like $3.8 billion in debt to build dorms and classroom space on their own because they’re not getting the proper assistance from the state,” Daggett said.
Grants do not help build facilities, encourage research and bring more top professors to the state’s universities, which is what they need, he said.
The three candidates also differed with the possibility of signing a gay marriage law.
Corzine and Daggett said they would sign one, citing the equality of all men and women as their reason.
“I’ve made it very clear. I would sign a marriage-equality law … all men and women are created equal and should be treated equal under the law,” Corzine said.
But Christie would not.
“I believe marriage should remain between one man and one woman,” Christie said. “It’s a deeply held belief that I have.”
He does support civil unions, saying they provide the same contractual rights for gay couples as marriage does.
Christie said if the public wants gay marriage, he would put the issue up to a vote and let the majority decide.
But the constitution protects the equal rights of all people, and these rights need to be protected regardless of what a majority says, Corzine said.
A third issue the candidates differed was their vision for the Meadowlands Sports Complex, including the unfinished five-story Xanadu entertainment and retail center — to be the largest in the U.S. — and allowing gambling casinos there.
Christie said Xanadu is a disaster.
“It’s not only a complete disaster financially, it hasn’t opened on time and there is no realistic timetable when it will open on time, [but] it’s the darn ugliest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said.
The Xanadu issue needs to be investigated because a lot of taxpayer dollars have been used to construct it, Christie said.
In terms of casino gambling in the Meadowlands, Christie said he would not expand it there.
“I would not look to expand casino gambling anywhere else in the state of New Jersey until we fix Atlantic City and return it to profitability,” he said.
Daggett agreed Xanadu needs to be investigated but said no matter what it must be opened.
“Xanadu may be the ugliest thing and I never would have built it, but we better figure how to open it because if we don’t, we’ve got a big white elephant that’s going to really harm us,” Daggett said.
Xanadu needs to be privatized and given a timeframe for completion, he said.
Daggett also agreed that casinos should not be built there, but slot machines should be allowed at the racetracks.
“We need to make sure that in the end that whole problem is thought through carefully with all aspects of the meadowlands gambling and casinos,” he said.
Corzine disagreed with Daggett and Christie, saying the new Giants/Jets stadium is a “centerpiece of renewal” for the region.
“I think the Meadowlands is going to be a tremendous success,” he said.
Corzine admitted that Xanadu needs to be reexamined, but said it has to be completed.
The issue for its delay is the financial environment, he said. Once it improves, Xanadu can open.
He concluded by saying there would be no gambling in the Meadowlands because he wants to protect the franchise and workers in Atlantic City.
Second face-off sparks education, gay marriage disputes
Published: Sunday, October 18, 2009
Updated: Sunday, October 18, 2009
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