“Time to reach deeper into your pocket thanks to the current and past governors and legislatures.” Wow, we have some public pensioners on this blog! How do you guys feel about the Pension Committee’s proposals to reduce the cost of NJ state entitlements without raising state taxes? Would be nice to see an honest debate about this instead of the hysterical rants above. I personally think we’re already taxed enough, state income and local property taxes plus commuting costs are already the highest of any state in the nation. So just raising taxes again without concessions changes nothing of the status quo that has ruined NJ state finances and caused the local economy to lag the national economic recovery. Here’s the plan. Why can’t we debate this?https://www.state.nj.us/treasury/pdf/FinalFebruaryCommissionReport.pdf
The proposed Millionaire’s tax won’t raise enough revenue to cover the $4bn required pension payment at the state level. To do that, we’d have raise state income taxes on any household making over $300k a year by +10%, raise NJ sales taxes by 20%, and raise the gas tax by 25c per gallon plus the already planned NJ Transit fare hike of +9%. That’s the Democrat/union plan to pay for the past. None of those tax revenues raised would go towards future investment in education, infrastructure, or economic development. That’s why NJ’s net emigration will continue to accelerate, it’s why businesses are leaving, and it’s why pension hogs like the socialist we’ve got here are willing to tell the rest of us to reach deeper still in our pockets to pay for his $100k pension and free healthcare. He doesn’t care about the future of NJ; he only cares about his pockets. That’s why no part of the status quo in NJ is sustainable.
Bergen County already has the 3rd highest property taxes in the USA, and NJ counties take 7 of the top ten spots nationwide (source: https://onforb.es/1IQKDic ), and yet blog posters here can only see further tax increases as the long term solution? You must be retired public sector workers.
Taxes should be cut, not raised. A new Zillow survey (https://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml) puts Bergen County taxes at #3 in the nation, which means Ridgewood has one of the highest property tax bills in the USA. Surely we can find ways to operate more efficiently and reduce OT and other fixed expenses? Why aren’t higher paid employees in public safety and Village management contributing more (i.e. +50%) for the cost of their health care plans? Why aren’t we moving new Village hires to defined contribution pension plans instead of defined benefit plans like the BoE is doing?
The FACT is the actual cost for a N.J. public employee family plan is $19,488.00. The national average for same health care coverage for public and private health care family plan is $16,351.00 according to the September 25, 2014 – Status Report of the New Jersey Pension and Health Benefit Study Commission which can be found on page 8, (see link below).
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https://www.state.nj.us/treasury/pdf/NJPHBSC.pdf
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You claim N.J. retirees get $100,000.00 annual pensions. Partially correct but only if they are members of the Judicial Retirement System! Here are the average annual pensions for each pension system from page 11 of the same report.
Public Employees Retirement System – State – $30,769
Teachers Pension and Annuity Fund – $47,827
State Police Retirement System* – $60,297
Police and Fire Retirement System* – $57,764
Judicial Retirement System – $112,956
Wow, stunning: in 2013, the median U.S. real estate tax bill was $2,132 according to the Zillow analysis above. That number is DOWN -25% from the prior year when the median U.S. real estate tax bill was $2,800. And yet taxes in Bergen (avg $9,546 as of 2013 data) and Ridgewood (avg $16,383) only ever go UP. Why? To pay for past promises on fixed wages, pensions and healthcare that are frankly too generous. Let’s look at the most recent Ridgewood budget here https://mods.ridgewoodnj.net/pdf/manager/2014BudgetNews.pdf : employee group health insurance +12% or up $624K, debt service up $956K despite falling interest rates, and public safety contractual salary increases were more than half of total salary increases of $900K+. Unfunded liabilities (retirement payouts) are $7.1M (against a reserve of $479K). So while the average American home owner pays approx 1.4% of their home’s assessed value in property taxes, we in Ridgewood pay out 2.38% of the assessed value every year to pay for these fixed cost expenses that have nothing to do with making the Village better for residents. And PJ has pension thugs posting things on his blog like: “Time to reach deeper into your pocket thanks to the current and past governors and legislatures.” More like time to finally admit that we promised too much and we can’t keep paying for the past while shortchanging the future. Just raising taxes solves nothing, it just keeps the gravy train running for the elite public pensioners.
Funny, when you look at the list of Ridgewood public pensioners in the elite 1% who steal money from all other public pensioners, not one is from the judiciary. They’re mainly Police & Fire: https://watchdog.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/02/2014-100K-club-by-employer.pdf I guess Mr. Know-it-all forgot to mention that 48% of NJ’s $100K Club public pension members receive benefits from the Police and Firemen’s Retirement System (PFRS), and that of those PFRS pensioners, nearly 93% took advantage of “special retirement,” a provision in state law that enables police and fire officials, but not other public employees, to collect full pensions stating an average age of 52. And yet the rest of us are also subsidizing almost all of the cost of their healthcare coverage until they reach the age of 65 and qualify for Medicare. Maybe that’s why Mr. Know-it-all tries so hard to deflect attention away from this scam.
Don’t teachers, judges and municipal employees work more years than police and fire – who can retire after 25 years, ie mid 40s for some ? And yet these guys and state troopers are pulling down AVG pensions of $60K per year plus almost free healthcare ? That’s criminal.
Cut pension and healthcare benefits (and/or make the beneficiaries contribute much more to their own pensions and healthcare) to bail out NJ taxpayers, yes please
If they want to retire in their forties and early fifties because of a special state provision, don’t let them collect on their pension until their sixties like the rest of us. Get a desk job if you can’t handle the work in your fifties. These benefits are unsustainable.
Do not forget the majority of Ridgewood property taxes by far go to the schools.
this state is in a real mess. we need to blame all the ex big wigs because they did not pay into the fund. and now it’s the bottom of the work force ‘s problem.
The average PFRS retiree works for 25 years and retires at age 52, having contributed less than 10% of their wages to their own pension over their career – contributions have only risen to 8~11% of wages more recently. Someone retiring in 2015 after 25 years contributed less than 10% of the avg $2.5 million they earned over their 25 years of work. If they live to 86 years (avg US male lifespan), they will draw a pension for 9 more years than they actually worked ! If your final three years of total comp for the pension calculation averaged $135,000, that means at 65% of final comp your pension would be $88,000 a year. 34 years X $88K = $3.0mn in pension checks for less that $250K of contributions. That’s called generational theft, stealing from current and future workers to pay for inflated pensions. No thanks is right.
You can’t go by average lifespan charts. Municipal workers can’t retire until age 60. Retirees die before that do to medical conditions, and their so called “lifetime benefits” die with them. If there’s a survivor spouse, only a small fraction of benefits may continue.
Yeah, municipal workers get screwed compared to PFRS, judges, state police & and teachers. Those guys leave 50% of their benefits behind when they die, not municipal retirees
why can’t you go by avg lifespan shares ?
@1.32pm: You are grasping at exceptions. It’s like arguing with someone about the dangers of smoking and they tell you of their grandfather that lived to 90 having smoke two packs a day. The reality is that the original pension formula was flawed.
go after police and fire. they are the one’s that get to go at any age 25 and out. they make the amount for doing zipo. do less and make more. years a go they made shit, because they had 2 cops in a car, now 1 cop in a car and they make big mulla.