MONMOUTH BEACH — Add New Jersey State League of Municipalities leader Bill Dressel to the list of people targeted for namecalling by Gov. Chris Christie.

In a scathing rebuke of a New Jersey State League of Municipalities task force report on a proposal to reduce property taxes, Gov. Chris Christie today lambasted the league, saying it runs “corrupt’ conventions and is led by “a whiner” whose organization should go out of business.

“So it would be a great benefit to our state if the League of Municipalities went out of business. It would lower the corruption work by the U.S. Attorney’s Office by about a quarter,” Christie said when asked about the report at an event at the Monmouth Beach Elementary School.

The league on Tuesday co-sponsored a forum with Monmouth University’s Kislak Real Estate Institute to address property taxes in New Jersey. During the discussion, the league’s Property Tax Reform Task Force proposed restructuring the state’s income tax in a way that would raise $6 billion to reduce property taxes on most homes.

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The plan would revamp New Jersey's "graduated" income tax, where the higher rates are set for higher incomes. The current system taxes everyone at the lower income rates until they reach the next bracket, then gradually moves them up. For example, New Jersey's highest rate — 8.97 percent — is only applied for income earned after the first $500,000. Under the proposed change, new rates would be set and people would pay the same rate for all of their income, depending on which bracket they are in.

Christie called that proposal “ridiculous” and said it was “the old Trenton game” of tax and spend. He said that when it reaches his office, "I will throw it in the garbage can where it belongs."

“It’s the same old gimmicky plans that we’ve seen over and over again and hasn’t worked in this state,” he said. “The only way we’re going to reduce property taxes in this state is to reduce spending.”

He attacked the league’s executive director, Bill Dressel, calling him “a whiner, a moaner, a complainer,” and said the league runs “corrupt” conventions in Atlantic City where, Christie “arrested more people…than any other spot over the course of time” while he was U.S. Attorney for the state.

Dressel wouldn’t respond to Christie’s personal attacks on him but he defended the report. He said it was the product of more than a decade of discussions about an issue of great concern to residents and was meant to start a dialogue about how to reduce property taxes in New Jersey. He said the league has not endorsed the report or taken a position on it.

Dressel said the league has supported 27 of the 32 points Christie has made in pushing for changes in state government, including restructuring pensions, health care, arbitration, and civil service regulations.

“Property taxes continue to be the major concern of the people of New Jersey. The report released at Monmouth University yesterday describes one path to reducing property taxes, without increasing municipal budgets at all. It is not meant to be the last word, or a take-it-or-leave-it proposition,” Dressel said. “We hope that it will serve to begin a dialogue on property tax reform, which the league has championed for decades. Our efforts on property tax reform have been supported by mayors all around the state and have been respectfully recognized by legislators on both sides of the aisle.”

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