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BY BOB HOLT
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Local mayors are turning to the New Jersey Statehouse to help them cut costs. They want to limit salary increases for public employees who can't strike.
Mayors want arbitration awards to police and firefighters capped at 2 percent to help them control property taxes.
Gov. Chris Christie signed a law limiting property tax increases to 2 percent a year beginning in January. But NorthJersey.com reports that union officials say a 2 percent ceiling on salary and benefits awards would mean pay givebacks once health care cost increases are factored in.
Both sides made their case to a Senate committee Thursday, the first time the bill was heard. The bill is part of Gov. Chris Christie's reform agenda and includes making the arbitration process more favorable to municipalities.
Before the hearing, mayors called the law the "centerpiece" of the governor's plan. Without it, they say they'll have to cut services to lower costs because a large portion of the 2 percent increase is eaten up by salaries for police and firefighters.The Press of Atlantic City reported that about 30 New Jersey mayors appealed to Gov. Chris Christie in September for help complying with the new limit on property tax and cost increases.
The mayors asked Christie to push the Legislature to pass bills that would contain some local government costs and help them hold expenses to within the new 2 percent cap.
Ken Pringle, mayor of Belmar since 1990, said the cap doesn't take into account such factors as scheduled raises for seniority, uniform allowances and benefits. To make up for that, he'll have to cut from other departments or consider layoffs.
Pringle was also critical of the fact that the arbitration hearings are not public.
Unions said the arbitration process works and that without it, police would be taking an annual pay cut.
According to an Associated Press report in USA Today, Anthony Wieners, president of the 30,000-member state Policemen's Benevolent Association, told lawmakers that binding arbitration whereby an independent arbitrator settles contract disputes involving police and firefighters who aren't allowed to strike has been demonized by misconceptions.
For example, he said arbitrators are already required to consider a town's ability to pay before deciding public employees' wage increases.
Wieners said mayors were eager to "scapegoat arbitration as the boogeyman of property taxes," but that binding arbitration is a process that works.
Bill Lavin, president of the Firefighters Mutual Benevolent Association, also testified Thursday, calling the cap artificial and politics-driven.
Union officials also said they expected the arbitration awards to be far lower once the tax cap goes into effect in January.
