Word: florio
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Moaning is about the best Republicans and other critics have managed since Florio, a former amateur boxer, beat G.O.P. candidate Jim Courter last fall in a campaign that got nasty on both sides. In his inaugural speech, the new Governor whacked at the state's auto-insurance premiums, the nation's highest; within weeks he had signed a 20% reduction into law. He quickly followed with a blow to the powerful gun lobby: in May, New Jersey enacted the stiffest law in the U.S. on owning or selling semiautomatic firearms. In March he launched his attack on the state...
During eight terms in Congress, Florio had a reputation as a somewhat sanctimonious loner, better known for tending to constituent needs than for innovative leadership. Even as a candidate, he skirted specifics, going so far as to proclaim that he did not see the need for new taxes. But budget realities and the assumption of command revealed a very different Jim Florio. "Legislatures react," he says crisply. "Executives initiate." With 67% of New Jerseyites grudgingly agreeing that new taxes were inevitable, Florio worked them relentlessly for support of his proposals. In diners, gyms, boardrooms and convention halls, he explained...
...hasn't hurt Florio to remind voters that his popular Republican predecessor, Thomas Kean, left the state with a $592 million deficit this year and a shaky economic future. "Florio didn't create the fiscal crisis, and he's made a strong case for solving it," says Richard Roper, director of the program for New Jersey affairs at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School. "As a result, New Jersey is willing to meet him halfway...
...control. Almost 1,500 government jobs (of a total 71,000) have been eliminated in all areas except corrections and human services. Floriocrats are also cutting back such perks as state cars and credit cards. Improvement in New Jersey's poorest school districts will take longer to accomplish, but Florio is considering such concrete standards as postgraduate employment and college acceptance rates to supplement test scores as indicators of the system's effectiveness...
...expect Florio to wait for results before launching other initiatives. An assault on the state's medical-insurance costs is already on the drawing boards, and other targets are being defined. New Jersey's Governor knows he cannot stand still: as every boxer learns, success comes from quick footwork...