This can’t be legal
New Jersey State PBA President Anthony Wieners has been a vocal and harsh critic of the methodology that has enabled local governments to lower their pension contributions by a total of $135 million,
NJ Governor cuts pension payments; plan violates budget signed into law last year.
In a catastrophic move for New Jersey teachers, cops, firefighters and others, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has changed the funding formula for the state’s pension contribution so he could cancel $93.7 million in previously budgeted pension payments due in June, cut next year’s pension bill by $150 million, and put $900 million less into the underfunded pension system by the end of his term.
But it wasn’t until Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff provided a list of the $694 million in current-year spending cuts used to plug the hole in this year’s budget that the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services knew for sure that Christie was retroactively cutting the size of the pension payment that had been approved in the Fiscal Year 2014 budget he had signed into law last June.
Hopefully all the unions representing New Jersey teachers, nurses, firefighters, cops and all the rest of the state’s employees will form a coalition and fight back against the Governor, who is determined to cut pension, pay and health care benefits for people working in the public sector.
New Jersey State PBA President Anthony Wieners complained vociferously that the changes in pension methodology, which also enabled local governments to lower their pension contributions by a total of $135 million, would further weaken a pension system that Christie had already categorized as “unsustainable” and that the cost would ultimately be borne by public employees.
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
