Updated: MARCH 12, 2017 — 5:00 AM EDT
by Andrew Seidman, Trenton Bureau @AndrewSeidman | ASeidman@phillynews.com
TRENTON — New Jersey lawmakers are considering relinquishing management of the pension plan for police and firefighters from the state to the unions that represent them. Public workers have been complaining for years that the state relies too heavily on investments in hedge funds and other so-called alternative investments.
Now, Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester) is effectively saying: Fine, you give it a try. And most of the unions are embracing the challenge.
“It’s my pension. I need to wake up and see it’s being cared for, that it’s being invested smartly,” Patrick Colligan, president of the Policemen’s Benevolent Association, said during a Senate Budget Committee hearing Thursday. “And we can’t, respectfully, count on the State of New Jersey to do that anymore.”
The committee advanced the legislation on a 10-1 vote, with two abstentions, and it is expected to head to the full Senate for a vote Monday. The bill has not been introduced in the Assembly.
should have been done long ago, this will also help control the skyrocketing management costs brought by Christies cronies.
Good news. The faster the plans go insolvent the faster benefits can be diminished. Wonder if the unions will lower the assumed rate of return from 7.65%. S actual 20 year returns of only 7.2%? Maybe they can bet all of the funds on red in Atlantic City? Or use updated actuarial data on lifespan which will add 2-3 years of pension liabilities per retiree? How will they resolve the issue of only 1.24 contributing workers for every retiree? Maybe they’ll reinstate COLAs to deplete the funds even faster. NJ state and local taxpayers should be happy this mess is no longer theirs. Thanks PFRS.
The good news the PFRS members will not be paying BILLIONS of dollars to fund managers that historically fail to meet the performance of the DOW, S&P 500 or a whole host of other indexes. Pension fund managers are as archaic as the buggy whip. Why even monkeys have been proven to make better choices then pension fund managers….This is great news for the PFRS Pension.