“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
