Commentary
One of the most important—and difficult—roles of government is to craft a budget rooted in reality, in which spending is aligned with revenue. When I took office as governor of New Jersey, the state faced an $11 billion deficit on a $29 billion budget. I’ll be the first to admit that the process of closing that enormous gap was slow, grueling work and that it rarely left anyone happy. Even so, it was also an opportunity to embrace new ideas, strengthen existing policies, and eliminate inefficient spending. The end result? A balanced budget that was smaller than the year before.