Governor Christie pushed teachers — a union key to his pension reform plan — to agree to benefits changes Tuesday as his administration argued in a court filing that a judge “fabricated a constitutional right to pension funding.”
Christie is working to overturn a Superior Court ruling that requires the state to adhere to a law he signed four years ago requiring increasing payments to the pension fund.
At the same time, Christie is pushing the public to back his plan to overhaul retirement benefits for all public employees, a plan that requires changes not only to pensions but to medical benefits. Changes in health care benefits will mean savings that can be applied to pensions, Christie has argued. (Hayes/The Record)
one of New Jersey’s many sins of the past Jon Corzine
Christie not responsible for ‘sins of the past’, but says he’s committed to fixing them
FREEHOLD — Appearing comfortable in this overwhelmingly Republican town, where former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won solidly over President Barack Obama in 2012, Gov. Chris Christie went about reassuring residents this afternoon that he is not responsible for the “sins of the past” that have left the state facing major fiscal problems — but that he won’t shy away from solving them either. (Brush/PolitickerNJ)
14 unions make common cause in suit against Christie
Fourteen unions under the auspices of the New Jersey AFL-CIO announced today that they want to take Governor Chris Christie to court to compel him to make New Jersey Annual Required Contribution to the pension system for FY 2016.
The suit presses Christie to follow the 2011 pension law he signed, specifically the requirements of Chapter 78. (Pizarro/PolitickerNJ)
NJ Department of Education Unit “Q” Double-Dippers collected roughly $5.9 million last year
March 2,2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Speaking of salaries, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports on an investigation from New Jersey Watchdog that found that an obscure unit of the NJ Department of Education called Unit “Q” employs 40 “double-dipping” staff members, who collect pensions as well as paychecks. For example, Cathy Coyle, who collects an annual pension of $73,765 from the State, also takes home $151,862 for her DOE job as a “special services” employee in Unit Q.
From the Inquirer:
• Two-thirds of NJDOE’S top 60 Unit Q special services workers collect state pensions.
• Those 40 employees collected roughly $5.9 million last year – nearly $2.9 million in state pay plus almost $3 million from retirement checks.
• Thirty-eight of the double-dippers have six-figure incomes. Five receive more than $200,000 a year.
Most of them seem to work as either County Superintendents (irony alert: they control merit bonuses for district superintendents; see post below this) or Regional Achievement Center Executive Directors, who oversee NJ’s most troubled districts.
Data collected by https://watchdog.org/category/new-jersey/ and the https://www.philly.com/inquirer/
Double Dipping Starts at the Top with Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck and 17 other assembly and senate incumbents
March 1,2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, In New Jersey, elected officials can start collecting their lawmakers’ pension once they qualify for it (based on a complex system of accumulating so-called retirement credits), yet stay in office and also garner a salary.
New Jersey state senator, Loretta Weinberg, and mentor to our mayor justified taking nearly a $41,000 pension while still collecting a $49,000 salary on grounds that she had lost money in the Bernie Madoff scandal. Despite taxpayer anger after press reports of her dual incomes, Ms. Weinberg’s colleagues elected her majority leader in November 2011.
This continues a disturbing pattern in the Garden State. Last year, during Jersey’s state legislative elections, 18 assembly and senate incumbents from both parties who double-dip were up for reelection, including Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, who in addition to her $49,000 a year legislative salary receives a pension of nearly $41,000 annually. In her case, both incomes are for the same job because Jersey allows legislators to retire while still in office and get both a pension and salary. All 18 legislators won reelection. Their retirement checks annually cost the overburdened pension system nearly three-quarters of a million dollars.
Elected officials also continue to employ a host of staffers who double-dip, including those working for the governor, the state’s comptroller and the attorney general. Rather than simply resign their state jobs when appointed to the staff of an official, these employees retire, grab their pension and take home a salary, too.
Double-dipping by New Jersey public officials continues to thrive for one big reason: Too many legislators either directly profit or quietly condone a costly practice that drains untold millions from state pension funds.
New Jersey Watchdog found 18 state lawmakers who receive retirement checks totaling $782,000 a year in addition to their legislative salaries. The roster includes leaders of each party in both the Senate and Assembly. (See full list below)
The Assembly’s roll of double-dippers features Deputy Speaker Connie Wagner, D-Paramus; Deputy Majority Leader Joseph Egan, D-New Brunswick; Majority Conference Leader Gordon Johnson, Teaneck; Minority Conference Leader David Rible, R-Wall Township; and Appropriations Officer John DiMaio, R-Bridgewater.
Ranking twin-scoopers in the Senate include Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck and Minority Conference Leader Robert Singer R-Lakewood.( https://watchdog.org/category/new-jersey/)
The biggest dipper in the Legislature is Sen. Fred Madden, D-Turnersville, who collects nearly a quarter-million dollars a year from two public jobs and a state pension. In addition to $49,000 in legislative pay, theSenate Labor Committee chairman receives $85,272 from a State Police pension and $111,578 as dean ofLaw & Justice at Gloucester County College.
“Obviously, I don’t have a problem with people doing it,” Madden told New Jersey Watchdog last year.
“It’s not appropriate,” countered Sen. Jennifer Beck, R-Red Bank, one of the few legislators to openly oppose double-dipping. “The pension system is intended to support you at a time you are no longer working. So when you are an active employee, you should not be able to tap into both.”
Gov. Chris Christie has welcomed double-dippers into the ranks of his administration. A New Jersey Watchdog investigation last year found 19 state retirees were rehired under Christie.
Christie’s deputy chief of staff, Louis Goetting, gets $228,860 a year — $140,000 in salary plus an $88,860 pension as a state retiree.
“The governor called him out of retirement,” said spokesman Michael Drewniak. “And we are grateful to have him,”
Also in Christie’s corner are two prominent double-dipping Essex County Democrats who crossed party lines last month to publicly endorse the GOP governor’s re-election bid. (https://watchdog.org/category/new-jersey/)
Bergen County Sheriffs Office leads New Jersey in double-dipping by county cops
February 28,2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Under Sheriff Michael Saudino Bergen County leads New Jersey in double-dipping by county cops. The sheriff and four of his undersheriffs collectively reap a million dollars a year in pension pay on top of their six-figure salaries.
First-year Sheriff Michael Saudino ranks first among all double-dippers, raking in a whopping $268,000 a year. Saudino, 59, gets a $130,000 pension for retiring as Emerson Borough police chief on Dec. 31, plus a$138,000 salary since taking office as sheriff the following day.
Undersheriff Steven Librie gleans $219,000 a year – $115,000 in salary and $104,000 in pension. Librie, 50,retired as deputy police chief of Teaneck Twp. in August 2010, then was hired as undersheriff in January.
Undersheriff Brian P. Smith hauls in $218,000 a year – his $110,000 salary plus a $108,000 pension. He retired at age 50 from the Paramus Police Dept. in 2005, then he was hired as undersheriff this year.
Undersheriff Robert A. Colaneri receives in $204,000 a year – a $110,000 salary plus $94,000 in pension. Colaneri, 56, was hired as undersheriff in January 2011 after retiring from Carlstadt Borough in 2006.
Undersheriff Harry Shortway Jr. gets $186,000 a year – his $110,000 salary plus $76,000 in pension. Shortway, 72, retired from Ridgewood Village in 2001, then was hired by Bergen County as undersheriff in January 2011.
It gets worse and its a statewide problem ,according to Mark Lagerkvist of New Jersey Watchdog . Gov. Chris Christie while preaching pension reform hasn’t done much to curb double dipping by public employees.
New Jersey’s costly tradition of double-dipping — allowing government employees to “retire,” start collecting a pension and then return to work for the state, often the next day or week.
By the end of 2012 New Jersey Watchdog found 60 double-dippers who collect a total of nearly $10 million a year — $4.4 million in pensions in addition to $5.5 million in state salaries.
One-third of them were hired under the Christie administration with duties as government officials to protect taxpayers from fiscal foul play and abuses of the public trust. They include:
By the end of 2012 three investigators for the Office of State Comptroller — John Silver, Joseph Celli and Richard Nuel — collectively receive $262,415 a year in pensions plus in $276,000 in salaries. OSC is charged with uncovering waste, abuse and fraud in government.
Assistant Insurance Commissioner Joseph Brennan claims $204,857 a year — $123,000 in salaryand $81,857 from pension. Brennan heads a unit that investigates insurance fraud.
Medical Marijuana Director John O’Brien harvests $167,889 a year — $83,889 in pension plus his$84,000 salary from the Department of Health.
Thomas Flarity, director of security, investigations and audits for the Motor Vehicle Commission, counts on $188,544 a year — $105,000 in salary and $83,544 from pension.
Christie’s Deputy Chief of Staff Louis Goetting (pronounced “getting”) gets $228,860 a year —$140,000 in salary plus $88,860 from pension. Goetting is Christie’s budget guru on cutting the cost of government.
That year Christie gave his deputy chief a $10,000 annual raise this year, following New Jersey Watchdog’s report that Goetting had received$1.1 million in early retirement pay and severance packages from public coffers.
The 60 double-dippers receive an average of $165,000 a year — $73,517 from pension plus $92,461 in salary. Fifty-seven are state law enforcement officials who retired under a special law that allows them to receive full pensions after 25 years regardless of age. Twenty-eight retired while still in their 40s.
While this is only the tip of the iceberg for the state pension mess some estimates for fully funding pension promises accrued to date would require an immediate payment of either $37 billion, $83 billion, or $150 billion depending on whether you get your numbers from public plan actuaries, GASB, or me.https://burypensions.wordpress.com/2015/01/19/how-n-j-got-into-this-pension-mess/
Moody’s says the New Jersey Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) and the Teachers’ Pension and Annuity Fund (TPAF) “could fully expend their assets as soon as 2024 and 2027… even assuming the funds meet assumed investment returns.”https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy-policy/2014/12/03/moodys-nj-pensions-to-run-dry-in-ten-years/
‘Shocked’ by budget address, Sweeney and Senate Dems upbraid Christie’s pension plans
TRENTON — Senate Democrats, calling the Republican’s new proposal to overhaul the pension and benefit system a “some roadmap written on a cocktail napkin,” roundly condemned Gov. Chris Christie’s budget address today for failing to lay out a vision for the state’s economy and finances in 2016. (Brush/PolitickerNJ)
Assembly Dems question administration budget big on pension fixes but short on other issues
TRENTON — Assembly Democrats bashed Gov. Chris Christie’s budget address today for being heavy on talk about fixing a broken public pension and benefit system — but virtually nonexistent on anything else. (Brush/PolitickerNJ)
PBA head challenges Christie to ‘look beyond presidential ambitions’ on pension front
Following up on an earlier statement clarifying that his organization would “never support freezing pensions for our members who have continued paying their required pension contributions while government has skipped their legal responsibility to do so,” the president of a major public sector union in New Jersey further distanced himself from Gov. Chris Christie’s new proposal to overhaul the state’s pension and benefit system. (Brush/PolitickerNJ)
Firefighter Rep Donnelly goes after NJEA leadership after Christie budget speech
TRENTON – Gov. Chris Christie won the support of key Building Trades unions’ reps in his first term by seizing on fractures between those private sector unions and public sector labor.
This afternoon, his budget address sparked a fight among public sector reps, as New Jersey State Firefighters Mutual Benevolent Association (NJFMBA) President Eddie Donnelly trained his immediate sights on the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA). (Pizarro/PolitickerNJ)
Gov. Chris Christie Panel Proposes Overhaul of New Jersey’s Pension System
Gov. Chris Christie’s committee to study New Jersey’s troubled pension system wants to overhaul the retirement program for public employees, freezing the current setup and replacing it with a “cash balance” plan.
The plan would spread out the current pension system’s unfunded liability over many years, and would more closely reflect benefits in the private sector, according to members of the commission. Mr. Christie endorsed the report conclusions Tuesday in a speech to the Legislature. (Dawsey/The Wall Street Journal)
“There is as much as a $4 trillion gap between what states have promised its public workers in retirement pensions and what has actually been set aside and invested in order to pay for them.
What would you do to solve the pension crisis?”
Most realize the problems, but they don’t want tax increases or spending cuts to fix them.
Scott Shackford | February 6, 2015
There is as much as a $4 trillion gap between what states have promised their public workers in retirement pensions and what they’ve actually set aside and invested in order to pay for them. There are enough reasons this has happened to count as a survey question on the most boring episode of Family Feud ever—states and cities didn’t set aside enough money, employees didn’t contribute enough, and guaranteed investment returns are overestimated, among many other problems.
But what does the average American think about the pension crisis and what would they do? A small number of communities like Phoenix, Arizona, and San Jose, California, have put pension reform in the voters’ hands, with mixed results. In our latest Reason-Rupe poll, we decided to focus almost entirely on the pension crisis, asking Americans how seriously they view the problem and what sort of trade-offs they would accept to fix it.
Yes, Americans Are Concerned About the Pension Crisis
Pension worriers will be pleased to hear that Americans are at least paying attention. A full 72 percent of those polled are either “very” or “somewhat” concerned about state and local governments’ ability to fund the pensions they’ve promised to public employees. A similar number (74 percent) are concerned that state or local governments will raise taxes in the future in order to meet these pension obligations. When asked to prioritize dealing with the pension crisis, 35 percent said pension reform should be a top priority, while 41 percent said pension reform should be an important but lower priority.
Actually tackling the pension crisis is a much more complicated affair. The poll asked participants to consider a host of different possibilities—raising taxes, reducing services, capping maximum pension payments, requiring workers to pay more, and transferring public employees to 401(k)-style defined contribution plans, rather than guaranteed pensions.
The most consistent response is probably also the most obvious: Americans want pension reform solutions that push public employees to play a greater role in their own retirements rather than relying on taxpayers to bail them out. Those surveyed were significantly opposed to raising taxes (74 percent) or cutting government services (77 percent) in order to fix funding problems with public employee pensions. Instead, when given a list of choices, participants strongly supported (82 percent) requiring public employees to contribute more to their own retirement funds. When asked to rank potential solutions, “Require current employees to contribute more toward their own pensions and benefits” blew every other option out of the water with 63 percent of the vote as the first choice. No other option even hit double digits.
But that list of solutions assumed states and cities would keep the existing pension systems and salvage them. The Reason-Rupe poll also asked whether participants would like to switch public employees from pension funds to 401(k)-style defined contribution retirement funds. The answer was yes. The poll asked participants whether they would favor such funds for current public employees and a separate question for just future hires. In both cases, the majority said yes, but support for shifting over future employees was notably higher (67 percent) than for current employees (59 percent).
But when comparing the two types of retirement systems in different ways, differences in responses were notable. The poll asked participants a question where the benefits of switching to a 401(k)-style plan were described (“401k style programs give employees the flexibility to take the plan with them from job to job and are less costly to the taxpayer”) as well as the concerns about switching to a such a plan (“benefits would not be guaranteed and would depend on how well the employees saved and how the market performed”). When those descriptions were used to ask whether they supported or opposed a shift to 401(k)-style programs, 66 percent still supported the shift. But when asked to consider a shift to 401(k)-style programs given only the concerns, support dropped to 50 percent. And when people polled are asked if they’d support shifting to 401(k)-style programs if it meant “breaking a contract made with public employees when they first accepted their jobs,” support plummets down to 38 percent. When asked to trade off a shift to 401(k)-style programs with either raising taxes or reducing services to pay for retirement, support for 401(k) programs climbed back up (66 percent and 59 percent). Those polled even opposed increasing taxes or reducing government services in order to pay the current pension benefits for already retired employees.
The lesson here: Americans don’t necessarily want to break an agreement with public employees or push them into retirement plans where the future benefits are not guaranteed, but they are willing to do so in order to avoid additional tax increases or reductions in government services.
“But what do the millennials think?” You may ask. Do they understand the crisis they’re getting themselves into as they take up a larger and larger chunk of the workforce? Yes and no. Those polled under the age of 30 do have concerns, but the numbers are more muted than for older generations. The number of millennials who say they’re concerned about pension funds drops down to 59 percent, and they’re less likely to see dealing with pension problems as a top priority (only 25 percent). Nevertheless, millennials also supported shifting public employees to 401(k) plans and requiring employees to contribute more into their retirement plans. Variations in responses by millennials may indicate more that they have less experience in these workplace issues or with dealing with taxation impacts rather than any sort of generational differences. For example, millennials were more likely to believe (34 percent) that public employee and private employees received fundamentally the same retirement benefits, something older workers know is untrue (public employees are widely understood to generally get better retirement benefits). They were also the only age group where a majority (59 percent) believed that pension calculations for retiring employees should be increased by using unused sick time, vacation pay, and specialty pay, a system that has led to the abuse known as “pension spiking,” with public employees getting six-figure annual pension guarantees. When we break down the millennial age demographic further, millennials’ attitudes start to shift toward the overall average the older they are, more closely aligning with the over-30 crowd.
Public Employees Are Not in Complete Denial
The poll asked respondents whether they worked in the public or private sector (or if they were retired from the public or private sector) so their responses could be compared. Public employees accounted for 17 percent of the working respondents and 36 percent of the retired respondents. Public employees are certainly paying attention to the impacts of bankruptcy in cities like Detroit and Stockton, California. Public employees are more concerned (80 percent) about the state of pensions than private employees (67 percent). It’s understandable they’re concerned, since they are the most directly affected should their cities or states fail to address underfunding.
DECEMBER 7, 2014 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2014, 12:10 AM
BY JOHN REITMEYER AND MELISSA HAYES
STATE HO– USE BUREAU |
THE RECORD
New calculations show that the pension fund covering retirement benefits for most of New Jersey’s public employees is projected to go broke in a decade, not the 30 years officials had estimated just months ago.
The fund that covers retirements for judges and court workers has less than 10 years.
And the largest of New Jersey’s pension funds, the one for teachers, will run out of money in 13 years.
The actual values of the pension funds have not changed, and the investments are still growing at rates much better than managers had predicted. What did change was the formula used to account for how much money will be needed to cover benefits for future retirees. When the impact of that change was made public in a Wall Street analysis last month, the differences were stark.
The new projections are not the most conservative, but experts say they are more realistic than those New Jersey had been making before it switched to the new accounting method. But they remain only estimates, and a number of factors could change the depletion dates, including how much money is deposited in the system in the future and whether investments can beat the anticipated |returns.
Oddly, both the Christie administration and the unions fighting in court to force the governor to restore billions in payments to those funds have embraced the new figures.
New Jersey’s Chris Christie Vows to Persevere on Pension Reform
Gov. Chris Christie said he would propose an overhaul to the state’s pension and health benefits system later this summer, revisiting an issue that burnished his national political image in 2011 but challenged him this spring when he scaled back promised funding. (Dawsey, Haddon/The Wall Street Journal)
North Jersey police retirees cash in while lawmakers stall
JUNE 8, 2014, 11:03 PM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, JUNE 9, 2014, 12:00 AM BY LINH TAT AND MELISSA HAYES STAFF WRITERS THE RECORD PAGES: 1 2 > DISPLAY ON ONE PAGE
In the last three months alone, North Jersey taxpayers have been put on the hook for $1.5 million in payouts to eight police officers — including five chiefs — to cover thousands of hours in unused sick, vacation and compensatory time.
Some of the payouts include:
Vincent Caruso, Lodi: $342,381
Thomas Johnson, Elmwood Park: $228,141
Arthur O’Keefe, Englewood: $182,542
Gary Giardina, Clifton: $134,000
Frank Papapietro, New Milford: $158,000
Matthew Paz, Passaic: $100,000*
*Acting chief, city figures are estimated
The recent payouts approved in Bergen and Passaic counties are just the latest examples of a system that critics say is out of control, and a burden on taxpayers. In fact, some municipalities have been forced to borrow millions to make the payments. The Record has reported on six-figure payouts from at least a half-dozen other North Jersey public employees, including school administrators, in recent years. And there are more to come.
Indeed, these perks have become a rite of passage for some retiring public employees — Lodi Police Chief Vincent Caruso is getting $342,381, for instance — and other longtime workers still on the job, despite repeated criticism from Governor Christie and fiscal watchdogs who have called for the benefit to be repealed entirely.
“These six-figure payouts are forcing other people to go without,” said Jerry Cantrell, president of Common Sense Institute of New Jersey, a non-partisan research-and-education non-profit that receives support from individuals, private foundations and businesses. “If those dollars weren’t being expended on these things, they could be going toward legitimate purposes, like fixing potholes.”
State lawmakers have been unable — or unwilling — to strike a deal and get a handle on the substantial payouts. And without comprehensive, statewide reform, local officials have been left to negotiate a solution with employees on their own. So far, those efforts have come piecemeal and vary from town to town. In the end, it means the payouts keep coming.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/north-jersey-police-retirees-cash-in-while-lawmakers-stall-1.1031530#sthash.al6KqD0W.dpuf
When New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced his decision last week to forgo $2.4 billion in state pension payments over the next two years, he blamed his recent predecessors for leaving him a system deep in debt.
Those predecessors have different views. While some take at least part of the responsibility for the looming shortfalls, they also blame each other and Mr. Christie. They said they did what they thought was best at the time, even if they are now concerned about the state’s fiscal health.
“Everybody has to take the blame for this,” said former Gov. Donald DiFrancesco, a Republican.
The state’s pension is currently underfunded by almost $40 billion, and that could rise to $46 billion by 2019, according to a state report.
Faced with a state budget shortfall of almost $3 billion between now and 2015, Mr. Christie last week announced that he would do what many former governors have done: He kicked pension obligations down the road in favor of immediate budget priorities.
The Republican cast his decision as a choice between reducing services and raising taxes, both of which he said he was unwilling to do. Either move could potentially drain his political capital at the national level, at a time when he is struggling to put the George Washington Bridge scandal behind him.
After his decision, the system’s deficit could rise from about $38 billion to $46 billion by 2019, according to a state report, higher than when he took office.
Calling out his predecessors for not paying more into the system, Mr. Christie said his current problems stem from “sins of the past.” (Dawsey and Haddon/Wall Street Journal)
Reader says NJ Public Pensions are a ticking time bomb
We can’t do anything at a local level about already promised pensions, unless the Village wants to challenge final salary calculations used for pensions. We can move all new hires to 403(b) defined contribution plans and ask them to contribute more than 10% of their pay towards their pension. The state pension fund could file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy if their assets are insufficient to meet their obligations. It’s slowing the rate of growth that matters the most, taxpayers are already on the hook for $100bn of unfunded promises made to NJ municipal retirees.
taxpayers are already on the hook for $100bn of unfunded promises made to NJ municipal retirees.
Christie: If NJ doesn’t act, it could become Detroit
A caller prodded Gov. Chris Christie on the subject of cancer research funding, another on education funding, and in each case the governor pointed at the legislature.
He wouldn’t tell Ask the Governor host Eric Scott how he will handle Speaker Vinny Prieto’s (D-32) refusal to date to re-up the 2 percent cap on police and fire salary awards, preferring to keep his strategy cloaked.
“You wouldn’t want me to look like a schmuck, would you?” Christie asked Scott.
But the governor was pleased to blame Prieto.
A woman wanted to know why he can’t put more money into education.
“When I have to spend 94 cents on every dollar on pensions, health care and debt services, we can’t sustain it,” Christie said. “Any doubt of that, look at the City of Detroit. …The legislature may decide they simply won’t do anything about it. [But] The chickens are going to come home to roost.”
Christie has agreed to negotiate with Prieto on a law that limits property tax increases by limiting raises to some police and firefighters. (Pizarro/PolitickerNJ)
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