the staff of the Ridgewod blog
Trenton NJ, State Treasurer Elizabeth Maher Muoio issued a new voluntary disclosure statement to bond holders today, as required by law, providing the most detail, to date, on the potential impact COVID-19 may have on New Jersey’s finances, including revenue collections and pension fund contributions.
Among the notable items the statement discloses:
“The impact of COVID-19 on the State, its economy, and budget and finances is unpredictable and rapidly changing, but the State believes that events surrounding COVID-19 will negatively impact the State’s economy and financial condition.
“Some of the negative impacts that the State has currently identified include:
The State expects precipitous declines in revenues in Fiscal Year 2020 and Fiscal Year 2021, which include significant reductions in gross income tax revenues, corporate business tax revenues, and sales tax revenues due to required business shutdowns, motor fuels taxes due to Executive Order No. 107 (i.e., “stay-at home” orders), casino-related taxes due to casino closures, and lottery sales which have already started to decline.
The State expects that it will need to significantly revise the estimated revenues and projected appropriations for Fiscal Years 2020 and 2021 contained in the Governor’s Budget Message for Fiscal Year 2021 delivered on February 25, 2020, which was before the outbreak of COVID-19 within the State.
The State expects to encounter negative impacts on its liquidity in Fiscal Year 2020 due to the expected extension of the State tax filing deadline from April 15, 2020 until potentially July 2020.
It is possible that the State may encounter future increases in the State’s actuarially recommended contributions to the State’s pension plans to the extent that the valuation of pension plans is affected by the deterioration in value in the investment markets.”
The disclosure statement also noted that the Director of the Office of Management and Budget on Friday placed over $900 million in items of appropriation into reserve in order to ensure sufficient cash and budget authority to meet emergency and statutorily required obligations.
Among the major items of appropriations placed in reserve is funding for the Homestead Benefit credit. The State is in the process of notifying towns that any credits intended to be applied to the May 1 bills can no longer be supported by the state at this time. The State is prepared to reimburse any municipalities for the administrative costs if they have to issue revised property tax statements.
A full list of appropriation items that have been placed in reserve spending freeze includes:
The disclosure statement concludes by noting, “It is likely that the full fiscal impact of COVID-19 on the State will change significantly as the situation further develops. The actual impact of COVID-19 on the State, its economy and its budget and finances will heavily depend on future events, including future events outside of the control of the State, and actions by the Federal government as well as nations across the world. The State believes that it may be some time before the State is able to determine the full impact that the various events surrounding COVID-19 have on the State’s economy, and its financial condition.”
VOR has to stop the fatal assumption
that the citizens will backstop their
Spending mismanagement .
Nice to have or socially based excessive nice to do programs
HAVE TO STOP BE CUT
TAXPAYERS Wont backstop the spending parade .
Meantime the condos rise …
Timing is never VOR Taxpayers friend
with our past two VOR administration
During times of crisis you realize how broke you have always been.
Taxpayers will be in no position to backstop the state. The state has been bankrupt for years and will likely default this year. There are not nearly enough millionaires in the state (especially now) to fund this shortfall much less any of Murphy’s other follies.
Well stop spending money on fireworks and Fourth of July. Parade. For this year we can do without. I well stop spending money on fireworks and Fourth of July. Parade. For this year we can do without.
Maybe it’s time to sell the water department. We don’t need the aggravation of a water utility anymore. Suez will be very happy to purchase it, and it’s amazing in the past year how many new employees they hired. Who’s who anymore.
We don’t spend on the fireworks. it’s privately funded.
B4 you open your fat uneducated mouth have some idea of what your talking about.
And it’s gonna be awesome when the union boys get their comeuppance and the pension checks don’t show up because like we told you a thousand times you greedy bastards…THE PARTYS OVER. SOONER THAN YOU THOUGHT EGH?
Sorry Charlie Slime, the pension checks will keep on coming and there isn’t thing 1 you can do about it.
And oh by the way I just received my latest Viagra prescription again for only my $5.00 copayment. My many girlfriends down here in South Carolina are going to be very happy 😃.
You keep right on thinking your comments here are going to change something, I actually enjoy your stupid ignorant rants. You are quite entertaining for a moron and an asshole.
Did you see that 66% of the Village’s proposed $51 million 2020 budget, which includes a 2.2% municipal tax increase, is going towards contractual obligations for public safety salaries, vacation leave, pensions, and healthcare?
That’s up from only 60% five years ago, and will be well over 70% of the budget in the next five years. This means all other areas of the budget are being crowded out by $135,000 salaries, $100,000 pensions and platinum healthcare benefits (95% of all medical costs are insured and they have $5 drug copays) for police & fire.
The Village still has a $7.2 million unfunded liability on its balance sheet to pay out on unused sick leave at retirement for police & fire. They retire at an average age of 52 after 25 years of service. They get a one-time payment of 50% of their unused annual sick leave at their highest final rate of salary, not at their pay grade when the sick leave was awarded. It’s outright theft, and these payouts run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
They don’t get social security to be fair, but $120,000 in cash at age 52 is way better than a monthly social security check from age 67, no?
What a disaster.
OK well then have employees use all their sick time before they retire. And then there will be no pay out. Like some other towns do.
Any knowledgeable Accountant will tell you the largest line item in any corporation, business or government agency is labor and benefits, by a wide margin. The cost for employees by the Village is no different. By the way the person above makes it sound only Ridgewood pays $135,000 salaries, and gives $100,000 pensions and platinum healthcare benefits (95% of all medical costs are insured and they have $5 drug copays) for police & fire. Wake up Mr., that’s the same for EVERY other town in Bergen County. Or didn’t you know that?
Charlie Slime said, They get a one-time payment of 50% of their unused annual sick leave at their highest final rate of salary, not at their pay grade when the sick leave was awarded. It’s outright theft, and these payouts run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Back up that stupid statement with proof, name someone, anyone who retired and received a sick leave payout of $100,000.00.
Crickets, I hear Crickets……
Ah that’s great the union slob thinks his pension check is going to continue and then tells us about his limp dick and all those SC girls lining up ! Hey limp dick you go get your $5 viagra..matter of fact we’ll flip for the 5 er just so we can laugh at you! That’s how we know your a stupid uneducated civil servant because you were dumb enough to tell us about your erectile disfunction thinking we give a shit about your $5 prescription. Your about as man as they come…limply!
Ha Ha Ha your jealousy is quite obvious, yea I’m dumb, like a fox. I have a 6 figure pension, the best health care and prescription coverage your money can buy and I’m not paying insane property taxes or income taxes to the state of N.J. And you consider me stupid huh.
Lets look at your situation, You live in N.J. and pay insanely high property taxes (thank you for that by the way) and big income taxes (again thank you) you don’t have a 6 figure guaranteed pension, your medical coverage is crap and it’s likely your prescription coverage is horrible or more likely nonexistent. Tell me again who’s the stupid one.
https://theridgewoodblog.net/nj-treasury-freezes-nearly-a-billion-dollars-in-spending-as-fiscal-uncertainty-over-covid-19-including-homestead-rebate-treasury-freezes-nearly-a-billion-dollars-in-spending-as-fiscal-uncertainty/
you might want to read this real carefully
And you might want to educate your dumb ass by reading this.
LEGAL CONSTRAINTS ON CHANGES IN STATE AND LOCAL PENSIONS
Pension Protections for Current Workers
The existing legal constraints on changing future benefits for current workers were a reaction to a period when pensions were viewed as a gratuity that the state.
Since federal laws regulating pensions do not apply to public sector plan changes, states were responsible for determining their own benefit protections for public sector work- ers.1 The legal approaches to protect public pensions vary across states.
Most states protect pensions under a contracts- based approach. The Federal Constitution’s Contract Clause and similar provisions in state constitutions prohibit a state from passing any law that impairs existing public or private contracts. To determine whether a state action is unconstitutional under the Contract Clause, the courts apply a three-part test. First, they determine whether a contract exists. This process determines when the contract is formed
and what it protects. Second, the courts determine whether the state action constitutes a substantial impairment to the contract. If the impairment is substantial, then the court must determine whether the action is justified by an important public pur- pose and if the action taken in the public interest is reasonable and necessary. This approach sets a high bar for changing future benefits, presenting a serious obstacle to pension reform.
https://crr.bc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/slp_25.pdf
CHECK MATE!
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Here is a key point from that document.
Tell me again about how my Pension is going away…….😆🤣😂
A handful of states that protect pensions under the contract theory also have state constitutional provisions that expressly prevent the state from reducing benefits that participants expected at the time of employment.
In these states, changing benefits for existing employees is virtually impossible without amending the state constitution. In contrast, Hawaii, Louisiana, and Michigan have constitutional provisions that have been interpreted as protecting only benefits earned to date.
Table 1 categorizes the states by the extent to which core benefit accruals are protected and the legal basis for that protection.2 It is necessary to separate core benefits from the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) because recent court decisions suggest that the two components merit different treatment. Most states that protect core benefits under the contract theory do not have a state constitutional provision, but rather have statutes that expressly adopt the contract theory or judicial decisions that have ruled the rela- tionship to be contractual. Interestingly, for 13 states the protections apply only once benefits are vested.3 Eight states protect benefits only once the employee is eligible for retirement.4 While New Jersey and Rhode Island have been classified in Table 1 as states where future benefits may be protected, they have changed future core benefits for current employees and have court cases pending regarding these changes.
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Looks like the stupid uneducated civil servant just schooled the dumbass civil servant hater
😄 LOL.
who the dumb ass taker really is well known.