Kraft to Christie: 'You Can't Have Our Jerbs'

By Prescott Carlson in News on Feb 5, 2011 5:00PM

There's at least one company that wanted nothing to do with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's recent feeble attempt to swipe jobs from the Land of Lincoln to the Garden State -- Northfield-based Kraft Foods, Inc.

According to Bloomberg, Christie approached the macaroni and cheese giant for a little chat but according to a company spokesman, "Schedules were simply not conducive to a meeting at this time." Gotta run! Call us, we'll do lunch some time!

And Kraft wasn't the only one to give Christie the cold shoulder. McDonald's? "'No knowledge' of any meeting." Boeing? "No meeting was planned." John Deere? "Not aware of such a meeting." And so on and so on with others such as Caterpillar and Abbot Labs.

Christie on Thursday reportedly told a crowd of business leaders in Newark that he was heading to our fair state to meet with companies and talk "about having some of them follow me back," adding, "In New Jersey you can be certain that taxes are going down over the next three years. In Illinois you can be certain that they're going up." He failed to add that after those magical three years, the Illinois tax increase is currently scheduled to be phased out. But why pay attention to details, when you have a chance to move to beautiful Trenton?

The Bloomberg report also confirmed what has been previously reported -- that overall, "Illinois' tax load is less than New Jersey's, whose state and local tax burden ranked first in the nation in a 2008 survey by the Tax Foundation, a privately funded research and advocacy organization in Washington. Illinois ranked 30th."

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn's office was quick to respond, and Quinn spokesperson Brie Callahan reportedly quipped, "We, of course, welcome Governor Christie and we welcome him spending New Jersey dollars on the Illinois economy."