Governor Chris Christie, a Republican who has spent the past four months promising New Jersey income-tax cuts, now confronts the challenge of selling his plan’s feasibility against a backdrop of continuing revenue shortfalls.

New Jersey diverts more state income taxes from worker paychecks to corporations than any other state in the nation, according to Paying Taxes to the Boss: How a Growing Number of States Subsidize Companies with the Withholding Taxes of Workers, a study published today by Good Jobs First, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center based in Washington, D.C.

Real incomes were lower in 2010 than in 2007 for most households. Only high-income households were better off. Unemployment was at its highest rate in 35 years, and the number of children living in poverty increased by 16 percent in just two years.

What happened?

Large corporations and small businesses will receive more than $800 million in tax breaks if the governor signs a number of bills passed by the Legislature earlier this month as part of its “Back to Work NJ” package.