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TagsBY BOB HOLT
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney has his own thoughts about revamping state workers' pension plans.
Sweeney has countered Gov. Chris Christie's changes with a bill that would make pension benefits less generous to a lesser extent than the governor.
The competing proposals set up a potential election-year legislative battle between Democrats who rely on public worker unions for donations and get-out-the-vote support and the governor's fellow Republicans.
According to the Daily Record, Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver propose that the state allow the pensions systems to be governed individually by boards having an equal representation of union and management members.
The Democratic proposal calls for the state to set up the pensions modeled after a private-sector system called the Taft-Hartley plans. That would give the unions far greater say — and responsibility — to handle their own investments and manage their own system.
The new system also would have to meet private-sector standards, which means that if the health of the pension system worsened, both workers and governments would either have to either contribute more or cut benefits to return the system to health.
An Associated Press report from Bloomberg.com says Sweeney's bill requires current workers to pay more toward their pensions but leaves retirees unaffected. His proposal bases pension contributions on the financial solvency of the retirement funds, curtails automatic cost-of-living increases and requires workers to pay extra to keep a 9 percent benefit increase.
Christie wants to raise the retirement age to 65 from 62, increase the amount most employees contribute to their pensions to 8.5 percent and roll back the 9 percent increase.
Sweeney said his changes would make the state pension system more like the private sector.
According to the Daily Journal, Sweeney has said an overhaul of the New Jersey pension system won't fly without a guarantee from the governor that the state will begin paying its share.
Payments have been skipped or greatly reduced in recent years. New Jersey's pension funds for government workers, teachers and police and firefighters are underfunded by $53.9 billion and at risk of going broke unless changes are made.
Current retirees have a legal, social, and moral contract giving us a right to our pensions. Language in the state constitution guarantees this right. We also have the Non-Fortfeiture Statute on the books, which says public pensions should be paid in full and on time. Any pension changes should affect only newer workers, who have a choice of whether they want to continue working for New Jersey or not. I worked hard for 30 years to be eligible for my pension. It's unfair for New Jersey to say to people like me, "You put in your part, but now we're going to renege on the bargain
I'm concerned the Democratic proposal says Cost of Living Adjustments (C.O.L.A. )will be "curtailed". What does this curtailing mean and will it apply to current retirees, not just new hires?. If inflation picks up, as it may with the current Federal deficit/debt, it will quickly erode the buying power of our pensions without an adequate C..O..L...A. While some administrative types and political cronies do get inflated pensions, the average pensioner in New Jersey gets only a little more than $18,000 a year.Many do not have Social Security to back up their pension. Inflation's erosion of buying power will be devastating.
I agree with Senator Sweeney that any negotiation on pension reform showld depend on the Cristie Administration making a legal committment to make a full State contribution to the pension fund on a yearly basis.We should pass a law requiring toe State to make this contribution beffore any negotiations on Pension refform. A law should also be passed requiring all pension contributions be put in a "lockbox" and not be used for any other purpose