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2 percent cap would be reviewed after 3 years
BY TOM HESTER SR.
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
New Jersey's Democratic legislative leaders on Tuesday announced they are offering compromise legislation to Republican Gov. Chris Christie that would allow pay hikes for police and firefighters achieved through arbitration to exceed 2 percent for a year, as long as they remain within 2 percent over the period of a contract.
Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver (D-Essex) unveiled the proposal at the Statehouse and said it also calls for the cap to be removed after three years — the average length of police and firefighter contracts — to allow the state to gauge its effectiveness.
Shortly after, Christie, who wants a flat annual 2 percent cap for police and firefighter salary increases, described the Sweeney-Oliver legislation as "watered down" and threatened to veto any Democratic version of legislation designed to hold down property taxes is he decides it is not "real reform.‘'
Christie has introduced a 33-bill "tool kit" to lower property taxes and the Democrats who control the Legislature are offering their own versions. Any compromises are expected to be hammered out before legislators adjourn for the year-end holidays.
The governor said Sweeney and Oliver did not seek input from him or his office as they prepared the proposal.
"This proposal is probably the same kind of cap the Democrats passed with (former Gov.) Jon Corzine, full of holes like a piece of Swiss cheese that will allow the special interests to get more and more money from taxpayers,'' Christie said at a Statehouse press conference.
Democrats are reluctant to offend the state's politically powerful police and firefighter unions while at the same time, local government have been complaining for years that arbitrators have been settling contracts with police and firefighters unions that municipalities cannot afford.
"While it may have taken longer than anyone would have preferred, talking out issues and carefully crafting policy that will protect both taxpayers and employees was the right course of action," Sweeney said. "Reform that can speak for itself is always preferable to plans that just follow the sound bites.""What New Jersey taxpayers want and need is reform that both controls property taxes and treats fairly the brave men and women who protect our safety and our lives," Oliver said. "We've built a strong consensus around a responsible plan that will help taxpayers and protect the rights of police and firefighters. It's now time for everyone to finally put the theatrics aside and join us in doing what's best for New Jersey."
The Democratic mayors of Lambertville and Buena Vista endorsed the proposal.
"For mayors, our concern has always been that arbitration must be narrowly tailored to the requirements of the new 2-percent cap," Lambertville Mayor David DelVecchio, former president of the League of Municipalities, said "This proposal will still allow arbitrators to be creative in how they decide cases, but require them to take local fiscal concerns into account and always work within the cap. It's a good deal for local officials, public employees and, most importantly, property taxpayers."
"If municipal officials are to be held to a 2 percent cap, then so should arbitrators," Buena Vista Mayor Chuck Chiarello said. "Mayors and councils who already are trying to work their budgets within the constraints of the cap should not see their efforts blown-up by excessive arbitrator awards. This plan will help protect essential services — and essential employees — from being put on the chopping block, and that's a good thing for property taxpayers."
The Sweeney-Oliver legislation would require pay for longevity, length of service, salary increments and other similar compensation to be included in the 2 percent cap.
It would require all contracts that expire in the three-year window to adhere to the cap. They said that would prevent the purposeful stalling of contract negotiations.
The proposal would change the process for selecting an arbitrator for interest arbitration to ensure a more varied and impartial group of arbitrators makes decisions.
It also would change the process by which judgments are appealed and speed up the timeframes under which arbitration must be resolved and require arbitrators to meet stringent professional responsibility, impartiality and ethics guidelines.
The Legislature has advanced more than 20 property tax reform bills this year, including many either in Gov. Chris Christie's "tool kit" or similar.
Sweeney and Oliver said that lawmakers are continuing to work toward reforming the state's civil service system and other issues such as local government consolidation and shared services.
"We will continue pushing forward with our reform agenda, but unfortunately nothing will undo the damage from the cuts in state aid to schools and municipalities and the decision to eliminate property tax rebates this year," Oliver said. "Those decisions are driving up property taxes throughout our state, but we are committed to long-term reforms that will especially benefit working class New Jerseyans."
"With these reforms, we can begin to put the final pieces into the tool kit," Sweeney said. "When the property tax cap was signed, we said we would get municipal officials the tools they would need to make it work, and we have delivered on that promise. Local officials must do their part by continuing to make tough decisions, to share services and to do right by their taxpayers."
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