Halted: Christie’s plan to cut pensions
Chris Christie has had a lot of protestors chasing him around since he was elected Governor, but no where near enough.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is in a league with San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. Their animosity for public employees knows no bounds.
Despite his threat to take “extreme measures” to control rising pension costs, a New Jersey Office of Legislative Services published a memo that Gov. Chris Christie does not have the power to declare a fiscal “state of emergency” to make unilateral changes to the pension system, nor does New Jersey have the ability, like Detroit, to declare bankruptcy to get out from under its pension obligations.
In a March 17 posting on NJ Spotlight: News, Issues and Insight for New Jersey, written by Mark J. Magyar, we learn that Christie will not be allowed to fulfill the threat he made during his State of the State address in January when he threatened that he had “significant powers” to rework the pension system on his own. The not-so-veiled threat was aimed at the Democratic Legislature, suggesting that if it did not pass measures to further cut pension costs, presumably by requiring further concessions from the public employee unions, Christie would act on his own.
Magyar writes that, “With the governor threatening to unilaterally make changes to the pension system but not explaining how or what he intends to do, the Office of Legislative Services engaged in extensive discussions and review of state laws to determine any possible way the governor could act by Executive Order,” according to a Senate Democratic memo issued by Sweeney and Executive Director Kevin Drennan on March 13 that was obtained by NJ Spotlight, along with an accompanying OLS report.
“OLS’s conclusion is that he does not have any power to unilaterally make any changes because the state’s pension laws are all set by statute, including the reforms that continue to restore financial stability to the pension system,” the memo continued.
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