Stile: Budget breakthrough leaves Christie with face-saving consolation prizes

To listen to all the principals involved, the great budget drama and government shutdown was a seismic event in State House history.

But for all the tension and drama — including another humiliating social media star turn for New Jersey's Beachgoer in Chief, Chris Christie — the battle produced only superficial results.

If anything, what emerged was a titanic battle between power brokers in twilight, Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, the Secaucus Democrat facing the threat of a humiliating ouster by an alliance of intra-party enemies from central and South Jersey, and Christie, the unpopular, nothing-to-lose lame-duck hoping to score one last big victory before the entire Legislature heads out of town for the fall campaign trail.

"I got exactly what I wanted,'' he said during a late night press conference.

But for a governor who scored impressive, landmark reforms in his first term, this farewell deal proved to be a small-bore consolation prizes, an assortment of face saving concessions. He rolled into the final days of negotiations, threatening to wield his veto pen, a threat that everyone in Trenton took seriously.

Yet, Christie was undone by hubris in the final days. Aerial photographs of Christie sunning himself outside the governor's beach house at Island Beach State Park — a facility that was closed to the public — ignited outrage. The Jersey guy governor sitting with Marie Antoinette-like indifference to the ordinary folk being turned away from the park's entrance.

The backlash was so swift and so fierce — Christie, perched in his beach chair, was lampooned mercilessly on Twitter — that it was probably going to intensify as the shutdown dragged on. Christie, the Jersey embarrassment, was poised to become a national joke.

Christie dismissed the episode as frivolous, and asserted that he was simply using the beach to spend some down time with his family as Prieto was back in Trenton, struggling to rustle up the minimum 41 votes for the budget.

"I think I have proven over the past eight years, that I don’t care about political optics,'' said Christie, who spent much of the eight years cultivating a marketing brand for a national audience.

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Some observers say the public relations fiasco forced Christie's hand to settle as soon as possible. But others say Christie's nothing-to-lose attitude worried Horizon executives who began pressuring Prieto to give some ground in the talks. Either way, Christie signed a budget that turned out to be a big win for Democrats.

It included $325 million in extra spending, including money for legal aid services for the poor, higher salaries for home health aides, and most importantly for lawmakers heading to the fall campaign trail, an extra $125 million in school aid.

In his final showdown, the conservative, hold-the-line-in-spending Christie signed a Democratic dream budget.

"The is the best budget we have seen in 10 years,'' said Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester.

And Christie got little in return.

He did get Democrats to sign off on a plan to transfer the state lottery into the ailing public employee pension fund, a move that Christie says will boost up the fund's assets . But the agreement to restructure Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, the state's largest health insurer, fell far short of what Christie outlined in his budget address in February.

 At the time, Christie called for tapping the "abundant" reserves of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, the state's largest health insurer, for an estimated $300 million, and use the money to finance the expansion of drug treatment programs.

But the final deal doesn't establish any $300 million kitty. It does establish a plan to tap the not-for-profit insurer's reserves, but only money that exceeds a threshold or a "hard cap" — a level that will be much higher than Christie sought. And any excess money will be rebated to policy holders, not to finance drug treatment programs.

"That's what I wished would have happened,'' said Christie, who rarely concedes a point. "I gave in on one point, yeah, but I got a bill that reforms (Horizon) significantly."

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The agreement did call for more detailed disclosure of Horizon's financial information and executive compensation on the state Department of Banking and Insurance website, which Christie sought. But that's hardly a game-changing concession.

Christie seemed to relish the fact that he was able to get Prieto to agree to post a Horizon bill after Prieto vowed that he wouldn't. In his news conference, Christie repeatedly took digs at Prieto, portraying him as a shifty Hudson County politician whose word is not necessarily his bond.

He noted that Prieto, who is chairman of the Hudson County Democratic Organization, was opposed to the lottery bill but was willing to agree to it in an effort at compromise. Now that the deal was reached, Christie said Prieto hailed the deal.

"That's the luxury of being a legislator, especially one from Hudson County who can talk out both sides of your mouth at the same time,'' he said.

A tired Prieto said sometimes you dig in your heels. And then sometimes you step forward "to the  middle of the room" and compromise.

Christie acknowledged that the budget fight "was my last opportunity to have an imprint on the state." But he made his mark without the veto pen. It was the Democrats who made their statement with the spending plan.

Asked what about his plans now that the battle was over, he said, "When I get done tonight, I'll go back to the beach."