Former Gov. Chris Christie unleashed on Gov. Phil Murphy on Thursday as Murphy continues blast away at how Christie handled a generous state tax incentive program when he was governor.

Christie, in a statement issued after the second public hearing of a special task force Murphy set up to investigate New Jersey’s Economic Development Authority, didn’t hold back.

He said the program the tax incentive program program designed to create or retain jobs helped rebuild cities like Camden, and charged that the governor isn’t doing anything to help the city.

Christie, a Republican, also swung at Murphy’s time as ambassador to Germany, which he said Murphy got because he was a major Democratic fundraiser.

“While Governor Murphy was collecting his pay-to-play gift from President Obama entertaining the wealthy of Germany at embassy parties, we were back here doing the hard work to rebuild Camden from the most dangerous city in America to the most hopeful city in America," Christie said in a statement.

Murphy’s office didn’t immediately respond.

Christie’s comment on Camden came a day after Murphy said he was “deeply troubled” by a pair of news reports that, among other things, showed more than $1.1 billion in incentives went to businesses or charities connected to Democratic powerbroker George Norcross or people in his orbit.

Norcross, a long-time Camden advocate, teamed up with Republican Christie on several initiatives, including efforts to revamp Camden.

“Maybe Governor Murphy should spend less time having his out-of-state lawyers sending legally baseless subpoenas for his show trial commission and more time doing the actual work it takes to build on our legacy in places like Camden and Newark,” he said.

His lawyer comment referred to a statement by New Jersey attorney Michael Critchley, who represents an unidentified client “with interest in the investigation.” Critchley questioned whether the task force’s special counsel, New York-based Jim Walden, has the authority to practice law here in New Jersey.

Critchley acknowledged his firm sent out “numerous correspondence and subpoenas” in its capacity as special counsel for the task force.

The war of words from the former Republican governor came hours after Camden’s Democratic mayor, Frank Moran, and other Camden officials said in a statement they are “deeply appalled” by Murphy and his administration for the “blatantly political leaning task force established by him."

“We will not be party to nor will we tolerate any efforts to turn back the hard-fought progress that has been made in Camden over the last several years,” the statement from Moran, a Norcross ally, reads.

State Sen. Nilsa Cruz-Perez, D-Camden, the city’s council president and county freeholder director all signed on to the letter.

They all blasted Murphy, a fellow Democrat, for favoring tax incentives for large businesses when he was an executive at Goldman Sachs and supported a large tax break to try and lure Amazon to Newark.

“We find it surprising and hypocritical that Governor Murphy happily accepted $165 million in tax credits when he was on the management committee at the huge and lucrative firm, Goldman Sachs, and was fully prepared to give away $5 billion to the planet’s richest company, Amazon, but has feverishly insinuated without proof that irregularities exist for tax programs that would help Camden,” they said.

In 2003, Murphy was quoted in The Star-Ledger saying the state’s tax incentive program was an important factor in Goldman Sachs’ decision to spend $1.4 billion to erect a 40-story skyscraper in Jersey City.

At the time, then-Gov. Jim McGreevey was weighing whether to eliminate an incentive program.

“If New Jersey goes back on its commitment, its promise,” Murphy, then Goldman Sachs’ managing director, said, “we must wonder whether that commitment still stands to bring those jobs and those companies to our cities and towns.”

The dueling attacks against Murphy came as the task force he convened earlier this year after a highly critical audit by the state comptroller was released in January met publicly for the second time. It faulted the EDA’s management of a program that has given out tax credit incentives worth $11 billion since its inception, though only a fraction of that has actually been paid out.

Camden was at center stage during the hearing Thursday by the task force.

Walden focused repeatedly on changes made to the Economic Opportunity Act in 2013 that was supposed to help the state’s economically depressed cities with additional tax breaks to businesses if they relocated to New Jersey or were seeking to move out of state, taking those jobs with them.

Those changes, noted Walden, were made by Kevin D. Sheehan, a real estate lawyer with Parker McCay, according to “meta data” associated with a document that showed amendments to the legislation as it was being drafted. Parker McCay is a politically connected law firm with ties to and Norcross. His brother, Philip Norcross, is Parker McCay’s chief executive.

On Wednesday, WNYC and ProPublica, and the New York Times, separately reported on how EDA incentives helped Norcross projects in Camden and other clients of Parker McKay.

The Times specifically reported that as a result of the 2013 legislation, George Norcross’s insurance firm, Conner Strong & Buckelew, received approval for an $86.2 million tax credit to relocate to an 18-story office tower in Camden.

WNYC and ProPublica reported that of the $1.6 billion in tax breaks for companies that agreed to make a capital investment in Camden, at least $1.1 billion went to Norcross’ own insurance brokerage, his business partnerships and charitable affiliations, and clients of the law and lobbying firms of his brother Philip.

Tim Lizura, former president of Economic Development Authority, was repeatedly questioned by Walden about the changes that were made to the legislation.

“Did you know he was editing the bill?” he was asked.

“I did not,” he told the task force.

Lizura said among the changes was an expansion of eligible capital investments. That would mean more money to those seeking incentives.

He said he did not know if they were added to benefit a specific client of Parker McKay. But he did not take issue with those changes.

He also defended the EDA, telling the task force that the incentives brought far more revenue than they cost the state. And in Camden, the poorest city in the state, was particularly in need of large-scale meaningful investment, he added.

“We ran the EDA in a responsible and professional manner,” he said.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Ted Sherman contributed to this report.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook.

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