No raises for high-ranking state workers in N.J.

Gov. Chris Christie and top Republicans in the New Jersey Legislature are ruling out raises for high-level state employees.

Christie and GOP legislative leaders say they won’t fill positions on a state commission that meets every four years to review the salaries of cabinet officers, judges, legislators and other top New Jersey officials.

That will prevent the commission from giving those employees a pay hike, said Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce.

“Those people who are presently in the state working and have jobs should be very satisfied that they, too, are not on the unemployment lines,” he said. “If they think that there is a better challenge out there to get more money, then they should look somewhere else.”

With New Jersey’s unemployment rate now at 9.4 percent, DeCroce says the priority should be creating jobs for those who are out of work.