DECEMBER 27, 2015, 10:29 PM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2015, 7:23 AM
BY SALVADOR RIZZO
STATE HOUSE BUREAU |
THE RECORD
As Governor Christie heads into a crucial stretch in his campaign for the White House, back home, another pension dispute with multibillion-dollar consequences has reached a critical stage at the state Supreme Court.
A loss could spark another major budget crisis for Christie, potentially in the middle of a presidential campaign in which he often promotes his experience as a tested leader who can reform the United States’ fiscal problems and rein in $19 trillion in debt.
A group of retired prosecutors and public-worker unions is challenging a law Christie signed in 2011 that suspended yearly cost-of-living adjustments for retirees. When Christie tells voters in the rest of the country about having “fixed” New Jersey’s notoriously underfunded pension system and saved more than $100 billion over 30 years, he is referring largely to this cost-saving measure.
And the Supreme Court is being asked to strike it down as an unfair violation of workers’ rights.
Attorneys for all sides have now filed hundreds of pages of legal briefs. The court is expected to hear oral arguments next year and could issue its ruling just as Christie is competing in key primary states, or during the general-election season.
If they win, thousands of retirees — but perhaps not all of them — could begin to see bigger pension checks every year there is an increase in inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/pension-challenge-may-cost-new-jersey-billions-1.1481189