"Allowing them to stay here for the long term instead of taking their retirement savings elsewhere will benefit our economy far more than another tax break for the rich," he said.
Sweeney's bill is proposed for formal introduction Thursday.
The bill would allow those 62 and older who earn less than $100,000 annually to be exempt from paying taxes on pension or deferred-compensation-plan income, following the leads of Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Mississippi, which all have similar exemptions for retirement income.
The nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services has not yet completed a fiscal analysis of the legislation to determine how much the bill might affect state revenue.
The Christie administration declined to comment directly Friday about Sweeney's legislation. The bill would need either Christie's approval or a supermajority in both houses of the Legislature to become law.
"Rather than waste more time chasing down red herrings and dithering on urgent business, the Senate president's time would be better used focusing on the pressing issues that are pending before his house," said Christie spokesman Kevin Roberts. "The consequences of a failure to act by the Legislature are clear. It's time for them to get to work on the governor's tool-kit reforms for property-tax relief, pension and benefit reforms, education, and ethics reform. There's no shortage of work and no more time to waste."
Christie has talked about wanting to cut income taxes during his first term, but has not been more specific about a time frame.
He has specifically cited as an example cutting New Jersey's top income tax bracket of 8.97 percent, which is higher than Pennsylvania's.
