JOHN REITMEYER | FEBRUARY 21, 2017
As he nears end of second term, governor still struggling with state’s deeply troubled public-worker pension system, while some stakeholders look to a new administration for relief
Credit: Governor’s Office/Tim Larsen
Gov. Chris Christie once bragged about “fixing” New Jersey’s beleaguered public-employee pension system with a series of reforms that were enacted during his first two years in office.
But now, as the second-term Republican prepares to present a final state budget to lawmakers next week, the retirement funds for public workers remain a huge problem, and any long-term solution will likely not come from Christie, but from a successor who will be elected later this year.
Christie confirmed during a recent NJ 101.5 FM radio appearance that he’s planning to boost the annual state pension contribution up to $2.5 billion in the 2018 fiscal year spending plan. The increase would set a record for state pension funding in a single budget, but also fall well short of the full amount that actuaries say is needed to return the retirement system to overall good health. And it was Christie, in 2010, who signed a law that committed the state to fully funding the actuarial estimate by the 2018 fiscal year.
Christie, meanwhile, also left the door open during the radio interview to calling on lawmakers to approve new benefits cuts for public workers along with the next state budget. That comes even after he bragged in 2011 that benefits changes passed that year were “providing real, long-term fiscal stability for future generations.”