Governor Christie Sworn In

The Christie Administration is taking shape after the new Governor’s swearing in on January 19, 2010. Most of the Governor’s key cabinet picks have been made and his inner circle of top advisors in the Governor’s Office have been named. NJ CAR is very encouraged by the caliber of this Governor’s appointments. He has relied heavily on current or former U.S. Attorneys’ or prosecutors. This is a very experienced and well-respected group that the Governor has brought with him to Trenton. A series of 19 Transition Team Reports and a flurry of first-day Executive Orders set the tone for the new Administration. This Governor is serious about taking on the public employee unions, bloated and wasteful government bureaucracies, and rebuilding New Jersey’s reputation as a business-friendly environment. He will have his hands full moving his agenda through a Democrat-controlled Senate and General Assembly. But Democratic leaders in both Houses have signaled that they want to work with the new Governor and his team to promote jobs and economic growth and to get a handle on runaway government spending. As always, the devil will be in the details. Still unknown, at this time, is who will take on the leadership of the Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) and the Division of Consumer Affairs, two agencies with which NJ CAR and new car dealers have a great deal of regular contact. Whoever inherits the Consumer Affairs post will have to address some unfinished regulatory business involving used car item pricing. And, the MVC Chief Administrator will have to engineer the conversion of the State Motor Vehicle Computer System to a whole new platform. The Coalition has been encouraged by the efforts of the new Administration to reach out to dealers and to NJ CAR to help set the course for this Administration. NJ CAR met early and often with Transition Team representatives and New Jersey dealer Albert Preziosi of the World Automotive Group sat on the Banking and Insurance Transition Team. It is clear that this Administration values the input and advice it has received from the auto retail sector.