One Year After State Slashes Funds for Libraries, Gov's Chief of Staff Speaks at Westfield Memorial

Richard Bagger looked at home Wednesday night at the Westfield Memorial Library – fitting for a lifelong resident and former mayor of Westfield, but perhaps less so for Gov. Chris Christie’s chief of staff. Bagger’s lecture on Christie’s economic policy – the latest installment to the library’s Lee Hale Lecture Series – came nearly a year to the day that the governor announced plans to slash state library funding by 74 percent. This apparent irony, however, went largely unacknowledged. Rather than focusing on budget cuts, Bagger’s presentation, and the questions that followed, centered on how the Garden State can attract more industry.

“We continue to economically lag behind our neighbors and other states, which holds back growth and job creation,” Bagger said. “Our tax burden is the highest in the country and way too reliant on the highest earners.”

Bagger’s comments were greeted with nods and applause from members of the audience, which measured about 100 people.

“I think he’s building a climate that will keep businesses here,” said Westfield resident Judith A. Sheft, associate vice president for technology development at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. “I am a little concerned in the short term that some tech companies may take advantage of the lower costs in Pennsylvania.”

Mountainside resident Rene Dierkes added, “He takes a complicated subject like government spending and budgets and puts it in terms that make it interesting for the average person,” he said.

Bagger, who attended Wilson Elementary School, Roosevelt Middle School, Westfield High School and Princeton University, got his political start as a member of the Westfield Planning Board. Still in his 20s, he went on to become a town councilman, and subsequently served as mayor from 1991-92. A graduate of Rutgers Law School, Bagger served as assistant general counsel for Blue Cross/Blue Shield and worked as an attorney for the Newark-based law firm McCarter and English. He next served as senior vice president for worldwide public affairs at Pfizer Inc., a position he held for 16 years, before Christie came calling after winning the governorship in November 2009.

“I did not expect to be the job I am in, but Chris can be very persuasive,” Bagger said with a smile.

By that time, Bagger was no stranger to Trenton. He had served in the Assembly from 1992 to 2002 – the last four years as chairman of the Appropriations Committee – and in the Senate from 2002 to 2003. But working in the executive branch, he said, proved far different from working in the legislature.

“You see things from two completely different vantage points. It’s almost like being in Trenton for the first time,” Bagger said.

The position of chief-of-staff carries with it myriad responsibilities, but Bagger said he was appointed in large part due to his fiscal expertise. Working as a volunteer in the months between Christie’s election and inauguration, Bagger combed hundreds of pages of state expenditures. In the course of his research, he said he came to realize that because New Jersey’s gubernatorial election occurs one year before the elections in most other states, the Christie administration would face financial challenges that other new governors would not encounter for another year.

“New Jersey had an acute case of what was affecting other states,” said Bagger, who compared his early duties to that of a new management team trying to turn around a fiscally ailing company.

Bagger concluded his talk, however, by expressing optimism for the state’s financial future. “The good news is that a lot of states are following our lead and we are showing it can be done,” he said. “The big test is staying with the next few years.”

He also heaped praise on local officials. “As a Westfield resident, I think the mayor and the town government has done an excellent job of maintaining services even though they have had to do with much less state aid,” Bagger said. “They have been creative and efficient and should be proud of the job they are doing.”