Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who is toying with the idea of running for president, has yet to show sufficient interest in managing the public’s money in ways that benefit the public. He talks plenty tough, but can he make hard decisions that help ordinary people, even when it might hurt him politically?

His record on this score has been dismal. Time and again, he has used dubious strategies to avoid raising taxes (sparing him from inevitable criticism by party conservatives), even when increasing taxes would be the right thing to do. Such tactics have not helped the state. New Jersey’s bond rating took another hit when Mr. Christie, facing a big budget shortfall, rejected the usual remedies — cutting costs, borrowing money or raising taxes — and instead cut state contributions to the public employees’ pension fund.

Mr. Christie’s style of governance made big headlines last year when it was revealed that to punish a political foe, some of his associates had created a massive traffic jam that lasted for days near the George Washington Bridge. Since then the spotlight has grown even bigger.

The latest news involves what appears to be a diversion of funds originally intended for a vital tunnel under the Hudson River to a bridge repair job that normally would have been paid for by state funds. In 2010, Mr. Christie canceled plans for the tunnel, a decision that itself was a huge mistake. The Times reported last week that the Securities and Exchange Commission and the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., were investigating Mr. Christie’s efforts to use part of the $1.8 billion that belonged to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and was earmarked for the tunnel, to rebuild a deteriorating bridge known as the Pulaski Skyway.