Myth 1: Budget cuts. Christie claims to have cut spending. He has not. Jon Corzine's last budget came in at $28.84 billion (it was originally appropriated at $28.9 billion, but mid-cycle cuts made by both governors brought down spending by roughly $100 million). The 2013 budget, which Christie signed into law last month, is $31.7 billion. In fact, all three of Christie's budgets have been larger than Corzine's last one.

Myth 2: Tax cuts. Christie consistently claims that he held the line on taxes. But under Christie, the average net property tax bill has increased by 20 percent, largely because of the governor's deep cuts to the state's direct rebate program. At the same time, the state sales and income tax rates remain fixed at precisely the same levels as under Corzine.

Myth 3: Unfunded pension liabilities. Christie enacted important reforms that increased both the rate of employee contributions and the age at which government workers may collect their full pensions. But he imitated prior governors by drastically under-paying the state's actuarially required contribution (ARC) to the pension fund. Over four years, the Corzine administration underfunded the system by $6.4 billion. In just three years, Christie has underfunded it by roughly $8.2 billion. And he still has a year left to go. True, Christie enacted new legislation making it impossible for future governors to short the ARC. But that law doesn't come into full effect until the end of the next gubernatorial term. That's called kicking the can down the road.

To be clear, none of this makes Christie worse than most New Jersey governors. But if the governor's definition of a "Corzine Democrat" is someone who increases spending, raises taxes, and incurs long-term debt, then Christie is the biggest Corzine Democrat of them all.

The truth is of course more nuanced than that. Though he has skillfully cultivated a reputation for confronting tough problems, Christie has proven just as unwilling as his predecessors to unravel the thick web of local government that makes the state such a frustrating place to live.

New Jersey has 21 counties, 565 municipalities, 603 school districts, and countless other units of government, each with its own taxing and spending authority. Because the delivery of services is so decentralized, New Jersey residents pay a heavy property tax burden at the local level to fund a highly inefficient and redundant system.

As my former boss, Jon Corzine, used to explain the problem: New York City and New Jersey have roughly the same population. New York City has one police department; New Jersey has over 500. That's a lot of police chiefs and squad cars. That's why, in 2009, New Jersey had more police per 10,000 population than every state except Louisiana and Washington, D.C. That's why, in New Jersey, the average police salary is over $90,000 -- the highest rate of pay in the nation. In more than 100 towns, the median police salary is in the six figures.