I've written several times (here and here) this year about New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine's effort to take the fiscal bull by the horn in New Jersey.  Thanks to fellow CG&G blogger-in-crime Pete Davis' alert eyes, I discovered that the New York Times yesterday ran an editorial saying much the same thing.

EDITORIAL
First the Good News

Taking tough steps to restore a state’s fiscal sanity is not a sure road to popularity with voters. Just ask New Jersey’s governor, Jon Corzine.

Mr. Corzine and New Jersey heard good news this month when the major bond rating agencies said that the state was beginning to get its budgetary house in order. Standard & Poor’s, for one, cited “significant progress” in restoring some balance between income and spending.

And how are the voters reacting? Not very well.

The latest Quinnipiac poll shows that 48 percent of New Jerseyans disapprove of how Mr. Corzine is doing his job while only 42 percent approve. The poll also shows that Christopher Christie, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey who is frequently mentioned as a potential Republican gubernatorial candidate in 2009, is running even with Mr. Corzine. Clay F. Richards, the polls’ assistant director, says Mr. Corzine’s ratings are a direct result of his stringent fiscal policies and his plan to reduce New Jersey’s huge debt.

All this should come as no surprise. Mr. Corzine pushed a bare-bones budget through the Legislature that contained $650 million to pay down the state’s $32 billion debt. To do this, he made big cuts almost everywhere — including aid to colleges and universities, health care, municipal assistance and benefits for teachers and public employees.

Still, that is only a small step toward fiscal stability, and Mr. Corzine wanted to do a lot more. He proposed cutting the debt in half with big toll increases on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway. But the Legislature got cold feet, and Mr. Corzine had to settle for less. Even so, his efforts will reduce the state’s crippling interest payments by more than $100 million for each of the next five years.

Mr. Corzine must not let the polls discourage him. He should challenge the Legislature with a new debt-reduction plan when it returns to work this fall.

After my first post on Corzine, I was asked to write an op-ed on the topic by...The New York Times....which still hasn't run the piece (Pete and Andrew did great work with edits over a weekend).  So I'm going to wait eagerly by the phone today (actually, with call forwarding I can just carry my cell with me) for the Times to call and ask for an updated version.