His road to lasting change lies in creating a demand for honesty and economy and projecting it to the local level of government.

Philadelphia Inquirer
Sunday January 17^th, 2009

By Harry Pozycki, chairman of the Citizens' Campaign, a nonpartisan public service initiative fighting government waste and corruption

Fortunately, Christie promised big changes in the campaign, and a strong majority of New Jersey voters know that we can no longer afford business as usual. New Jerseyans are ready to reward bold action. Among the changes Christie has committed to is expanding our strong state-level pay-to-play contracting reforms to all levels of government.

Eliminating the practice of trading campaign contributions for lucrative government contracts is a key to restoring merit, integrity, and cost-effectiveness to the government-contracting process at the local level. It is an essential cost-saving measure - saving tax dollars by ensuring more real competition; doing away with the incentives to issue unneeded government contracts in order to solicit large campaign contributions from potential vendors, and removing the incentive for government contractors to factor the cost of political contributions into the prices they charge cities, towns, and counties.

Since more than six of every 10 tax dollars in New Jersey are spent at the local level, adopting local pay-to-play reform is essential. Christie will likely face opposition from the Democratic leadership in the Legislature as well as some of his own Republican Party county chairs. Still, if he uses the bully pulpit that only a governor has and makes it a high legislative priority, there is a path for legislative success.

After all, our strong state-level pay-to-play reform law was passed by the Legislature several years ago - an accomplishment that few political observers believed would ever be achieved. The political climate is much more conducive to major reforms now than it was then.

Christie's ultimate success will depend not just on his advancing good policy ideas such as pay-to-play reform, but on building a new political culture in New Jersey - one based on cost savings and service instead of self-interest and self-dealing.

That takes enlisting the rest of us. Fortunately, there are some building blocks in place that the governor can capitalize on, if he so chooses.

This past fall, the Citizen Service Act was adopted and signed into law. This new law, developed and championed by the Citizens' Campaign, requires all New Jersey municipalities to provide a directory of government boards and commissions with vacancies noted, as well as provide an open application process. There is also an executive order requiring a similar process for all state boards and commissions. Christie can and should call on all New Jerseyans to apply to serve on the state and local boards or commissions of their choice and to bring their own cost-saving ideas to the service of their hometowns and state.

Recently, the Citizens' Campaign, as part of its Jersey Call to Service, presented its first round of 10 cost-cutting proposals that citizens can use to help their hometowns attack rising property taxes, including consolidating services, eliminating benefits for part-time elected officials, and energy audits. Visit www.JoinTheCampaign.com to view the complete list. By encouraging and highlighting this kind of local action, Christie can build the political leverage needed for responsible cost-cutting at the state level.

Christie must enlist all the talent, commitment, and energy available in the Garden State in a sustained fight to change our political culture and enact responsible cost-saving measures at all levels of government. If he takes on this big challenge, I am confident that citizens will respond and he will be successful. More important, we the people will all be successful, and we'll build a sound future for New Jersey.