It’s still December, and already Jim McGreevey is hard at work. He hasn’t even taken office yet as our next governor, but he is off to a busy start. It’s really no surprise that his hard work would be starting early, when you consider the financial mess the Republicans in the State House are about to leave him. It is as if they are intent on emptying all of the shelves, cupboards and petty cash, before they turn out the lights and leave control of the place next month. If there were ever a truer time to say, “No man’s life, liberty and property is safe when the legislature is in session,” that time would be now.

While most of his predecessors have been able to enjoy their election victories, and spend their last month before taking office planning their transition, Jim McGreevey has instead had to worry about how he will plug the hole in the leaking state economy.

Worse yet, the Republicans are standing in the sinking boat, drilling holes in the deck. Republicans have spent and bonded their way into the annals of financial infamy.

At the start of the Whitman era, New Jersey had $4 billion in debt. As the Republicans relinquish control, those politicians who “cut our taxes,” leave us with $16 billion in debt.

The real headache for McGreevey, unrealistic revenue expectations, the downturn in the economy and the costs of terrorism, leaves the state in a $1.9 billion budget shortfall, and McGreevey fears it could grow to $4 billion by next year.

Does this stop the Republicans? Nope! After all, they are still in control, and as Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall fame once said, “As long as I count the votes, what are you going to do about it?”

If I could give one piece of advice to readers, it would be to contact your state legislators and encourage them to go home early this year. This lame-duck Legislature is aptly named. It is truly “lame.”

The good news is that our governor-elect is on the job and leading the charge for fiscal responsibility. His call to Acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco to revise revenue forecasts, and his demand that the Republicans curtail their run on the state’s bank, with an across-the-board freeze on all state spending, has ‘out conservatived’ the conservatives, much to the surprise of the State House establishment.

It is not that Jim McGreevey has suddenly become a conservative. Rather, he has become the voice of responsibility amidst an irresponsible Legislature.

Jim McGreevey has learned from the mistakes of the past, and is going to focus on putting the state’s fiscal house in order before all other priorities. That is good for him, good for Democrats and good for New Jersey. As always, McGreevey is focused and “on message.”

He recalls the terrible choices former Gov. James Florio faced in 1990, and he is intent on not allowing history to repeat itself. Florio, you will recall, also faced a budget crisis, and in response, pushed through a $2.8 billion tax increase, the unpopularity of which doomed him to become a one-term governor, and led to the loss of the state Legislature to the current gang I write of so highly.

Unfortunately, fiscal restraint means plugging things up on one end or the other. If you are not going to raise taxes, you must cut or defer spending. Thus, McGreevey, who promised no tax increase, is showing the leadership New Jersey needs by calling on the Legislature not to use their final days for Christmas shopping with state revenues.

It is clear, Jim McGreevey has hit the ground running in other areas as well, such as his establishment of an assessment of the state’s preparedness to counter bioterrorism.

Difficult times require a leader who gets things done. Jim McGreevey is a result-oriented, hands-on manager, and those traits, which propelled him to his landslide victory, will now serve us all well.

February 11, 2002