file photo by Boyd Loving
MAY 19, 2015, 12:48 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2015, 10:33 PM
BY SALVADOR RIZZO
STATE HOUSE BUREAU |
THE RECORD
In a rare moment of agreement, analysts for Governor Christie and the Legislature’s independent budget office said Tuesday that no matter how the state Supreme Court rules in a dispute over funding New Jersey’s pension system, there is no more money left this year to restore more than $1 billion that Christie cut from a payment to the retirement plans.
Using his veto powers at the start of the fiscal year, Christie reduced a $2.25 billion payment to $681 million, defying pension-reform laws he signed in his first term requiring the higher payment for the strapped retirement system. Public-worker unions promptly sued, arguing that a 2011 law Christie signed gave them a constitutionally protected right to the full amount.
As the case made its way through the courts, the state kept making payments to schools, hospitals, universities and hundreds of other programs. Now with only weeks left before the end of the fiscal year, almost all of the $33.1 billion in the state budget has been paid out, said David Rosen, the budget chief at the independent Office of Legislative Services.
“If the Supreme Court were to direct the state to make the full pension payment before June 30, I’m not sure that that’s fiscally or physically possible,” Rosen testified before the state Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, citing “the constraints that we have on how we could come up with that money.”
Of course not, Christie pissed the money away on his buddies who manage the pension funds through big bonuses and fat paychecks.
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https://www.thenation.com/article/178862/pensiongate-chris-christie-steered-huge-contracts-campaign-donors
nice try forgot to mention that both Mac Greevey and Cozine both did the same (elected by unions dues) and Mac Greevey hired people with no qualifications to manage money , this mess is way bigger than Christie
@11.18am: Even if your absurd point were true, the money paid to those people is a relative drop in the bucket compared to what would be needed to fund the pension shortfall. Christie was elected simply because the State was virtually bankrupt, a financial predicament that even solid Democrat-voting NJ couldn’t stomach any longer.
Accept reality. The money is not there. The pension was a pipe dream built on formulas that had no hope. They were on a par with those in places like Greece.
Just freeze total comp for all state & municipal workers so this doesn’t get any further out of hand. And cap pensionable income at some level, say 60% of $110,000 max. That would mean max pension would be $66,000 which is well above the current PFRS avg $57k and TPAF avg $47k.
Unsustainable promises made with someone else’s money. Now that the money’s not there to pay these outrageous benefits, the pensioners blame everyone but themselves. 11:18, did you just think the money to meet these inflated contracts would grow on trees? Christie “pissed away” the $80 billion pension liability? Don’t think so. Nobody agrees with you except public pensioners.
California capped pensionable income at 50% of $110,000 max, so max public pension is $55k a year. We have over 3,000 public sector retirees in NJ alone getting over $100k a year, which is not sustainable and unfair to other retirees.
Pension pipe dreams – ain’t no money left
Yea just keep your head in the sand 12:26 pm and continue blaming the workers for this mess and not the Governors who raided the pension system to pay their political supporters. You must be a political hack who benefited off the back of hard working employees.
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You say “Nobody agrees with you except public pensioners.” WRONG Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind poll reports that 63 percent of the 813 voters asked last week believe those who have been promised pensions should receive the full amount. Slightly more than quarter (27 percent) said cutting pension is the solution to the growing problem.
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https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/06/nj_voters_dont_want_to_reduce_pension_payouts_to_retured_workers_poll_says.html
A relative drop in the bucket Declan Harrison? That’s just the beginning. What about the pension funds being used to fund Abbott Schools in 1997? Or how about the pension holidays given to the state and towns. Throw around a few million here and a waste few million there and pretty soon you have a Billion dollars wasted.
All politicians from both sides have dirty hands up to and including Christie they all made the deals knowing full well there was no money.They all closed there eyes and continue to kick the can down the road.
Lets put some perspective on this matter. Blaming New Jersey Government Workers for the underfunding of the New Jersey State Pension system is like blaming the Private Sector Workers for the underfunding of Social Security. In both cases, Public and Private workers made their contributions into the Pensions and Social Security and the elected officials decided to raid the funds for their own benefit.
If you must blame anyone blame your elected officials for the Social Security and Pensions Mess not the Public or Private sector employees.
A classic example of a failed socialist policy….
I hope my measly $28K pension does not dry up.
what are the police and fire dept’s going to do down the road.
Blame whoever you want but back in the real world there’s no money to pay for all of these promises. Pensioners want more and more of state & local budgets to go to pay for their unsustainable benefits including the best healthcare coverage money can buy, all on the taxpayers dime.
“what are the police and fire dept’s going to do down the road” Call you 6:07 when there a fire.
Yea, 10:21 pm you can blame whomever you want but if there was enough Taxpayer Money to bail out your Wall Street job then there is enough money to bail out N.J.s Pensions.
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I know you think it’s ok to bail out your job, but it’s not ok to bail out anyone else when you have to pay part of the bill. Sorry Charlie, time to dig deeper into your deep pockets and pony up more tax dollars.
There’s huge difference with the bank bailouts and what would be bailing out the pensions. The banks paid the money back, with interest. The pensions would not be able to pay the money back.
union solution: raise state & local taxes and crowd out all other spending. How will this help NJ’s economy? Large employers are already leaving due to high state & local taxes which punish their employees as well.
6:07pm, good question which the unions refuse to answer. at the current rate of growth, spending on public safety (police, fire, emergency mgmt, NWBCD) and their pension and healthcare entitlements will crowd out all other budget items in Ridgewood by 2025 or shortly thereafter. So basically they will eat up 100% of our property taxes after interest payments on our debt paying for accumulated leave upon retirement, pensions, healthcare premiums and excise taxes on their Cadillac healthcare under the ACA (100% of police & fire have gold-plated coverage). They already want to raise our taxes (see post @ 7:40am about ponying up more tax dollars) and then they will weant us to borrow more to pay their pensions and healthcare. The state PFRS is projected to run out of money by 2027, and the municipal PFRS pension fund will be depleted in the late 2030s.
Nice attempt at lying 8:59 AM.
The expense for Public Safety is not going to crowd out all other budget items in Ridgewood by 2025 or shortly thereafter. Public Safety costs for 2014 was $17,800,000.00 out of a $46,200,000.00 or only 38% of the budget. Public Safety employees are more than 1/3 of the total Village employee workforce of 260 employees. This is a normal and acceptable ratio for a community.
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See Budget Newsletter – https://mods.ridgewoodnj.net/pdf/manager/2014BudgetNews.pdf
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You are like chicken little claiming the sky is falling….the fact is the cost for public safety expenses are not increasing anywhere near what you say they are.
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Another lie your hoping people believe is “the municipal PFRS pension fund will be depleted in the late 2030s.” Wrong, on Page 14 of the Status Report of the New Jersey Pension and Health Benefit Study Commission (see link below) dated September 25, 2014 states the municipal PFRS has a funding ratio of 76.7% which is considered healthy and acceptable by actuarial examiners. It is NOT as you claim “going to run out of money”
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https://www.state.nj.us/treasury/pdf/NJPHBSC.pdf
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STOP LYING CHARLIE!
Nice attempt at lying again 8:59am,
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The Public safety budget is only 37% of the total municipal budget which is less than 23% of the total property tax bill. You conveniently forget about the school portion of the property taxes, which is 67% of the property tax when you made your outrageous claim…..
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“spending on public safety (police, fire, emergency mgmt, NWBCD) and their pension and healthcare entitlements will crowd out all other budget items in Ridgewood by 2025 or shortly thereafter. So basically they will eat up 100% of our property taxes”
There is no way that it will ever become 100% of the municipal budget as you falsely claim. You sound like chicken little…the sky is falling the sky is falling.
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Another one of your lies is “the municipal PFRS pension fund will be depleted in the late 2030s.” According to the Status Report of the New Jersey Pension and Health Benefit Study Commission, dated September 2014(see link below) , on page 14 it states that the municipal pension for PFRS funding ratio is 76.7% which according to actuaries is considered healthy and not in danger of becoming underfunded.
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https://www.state.nj.us/treasury/pdf/NJPHBSC.pdf
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STOP LYING CHARLIE!
Who is the a$$hole? Guess he missed accumulated leave, pension and healthcare costs in his “facts”
Our friendly fire captain and his fabulous “facts” are back… guess he never reads updates like these https://assets.njspotlight.com/assets/14/1203/1751
Not sure who the hell 11:11 is but if he or she read pages 17 and 19 of the 2015 budget here https://mods.ridgewoodnj.net/pdf/manager/2015BudgetPresentation.pdf and used their limited math skills, it’s pretty clear that wages, pensions, healthcare and accumulated leave, ie contractual obligations eat up 60% of the Vilksgd budget. Stop making up “facts” which have no basis in reality
Sounds like you are the A$$hole 11:34 am 11:38 am and 11:46 am, or should I call you Chucky Slime instead.
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Funny how you have to resort to name calling when you don’t have any real facts to support your stupid allegations.
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Anyone who ignores the fact that the school portion of the budget (BOE) is the runaway train in the property taxes clearly has some other agenda.
So tell us Chucky, why are you cherry picking information? I know you want to make it look like the Village Municipal Budget is out of control when in fact it isn’t. The Village 2014 effective tax rate was 2.270. This tax rate is below 36 other Bergen County towns (listed below) according to the NJ Division of Taxation, see link below:
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https://www.state.nj.us/treasury/taxation/pdf/lpt/gtr14ber.pdf
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BERGENFIELD BORO 3.151
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BOGOTA BORO 3.222
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DUMONT BORO 2.998
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ELMWOOD PARK BORO 2.690
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EMERSON BORO 2.392
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ENGLEWOOD CITY 2.294
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FAIRLAWN BORO 2.830
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FAIRVIEW BORO 2.702
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GARFIELD CITY 2.507
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GLEN ROCK BORO 2.560
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HACKENSACK CITY 3.089
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HARRINGTON PARK BORO 2.471
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HASBROUCK HGHTS BORO 2.684
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HAWORTH BORO 2.355
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HILLSDALE BORO 2.412
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LEONIA BORO 2.677
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LITTLE FERRY BORO 2.586
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LODI BORO 3.122
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LYNDHURST TWP 2.608
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MAYWOOD BORO 2.562
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MIDLAND PARK BORO 2.498
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NEW MILFORD BORO 2.857
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NORTH ARLINGTON BORO 2.918
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NORTHVALE BORO 2.375
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OAKLAND BORO 2.437
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ORADELL BORO 2.473
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RIDGEFIELD PARK VILLAGE 3.006
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RIVEREDGE BORO 2.751
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RIVERVALE TWP 2.415
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RUTHERFORD BORO 2.622
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SO HACKENSACK TWP 2.492
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TEANECK TWP 2.916
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WALDWICK BORO 2.602
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WALLINGTON BORO 2.543
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WESTWOOD BORO 2.346
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WOOD RIDGE BORO 2.417
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These numbers are FACTS! The Village spends less for municipal services and provides more services than these towns and that’s a FACT!. But Chucky boy keeps repeating his rhetoric and spewing false accusations and trying to vilify the town employees for some reason only he knows. One thing is for sure if anyone posting on this blog is delusional it’s Chucky boy our friendly poster.
Gee 11:46 am , I wonder why you didn’t mention the information on Page 16 of the 2015 Village Budget Document you cited as a reference
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https://mods.ridgewoodnj.net/pdf/manager/2015BudgetPresentation.pdf
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You know the page that says……
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Expense Decreases:
◦ Decrease in Fire salaries & wages – $350K. – Fire is 9% less than prior year’s budget & 7% less than actual.
Oh yea those FACTS don’t fit your narrative of Public Safety runaway spending, sorry I forgot that.
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STOP LYING CHUCKY OLD PAL!
Huh?
Hey #26, learn how to read a budget presentation before you post please. The decrease in fire salaries in wages is due to retirements. So unless you’re proposing that those jobs go unfilled (they were just filled) and we fire the new hires we just made, it’s only temporary and the $350K in savings is dwarfed by the increase in Police – due to contracts & ammunition ($367K over 2014 budget, $518K over actual), the increase in Group health insurance expense (up approximately $350K), as well as the money we’ve had to reserve against expected retirements over the next three years ($715K). The Village has $7.14 million in unfunded accumulated leave payments, most of which is for police & fire. Nine confirmed retirees will get $715,717 between 2015-2017, or an average of $80K each. Those are mainly police & fire retirees. So despite the “savings” you trumpet, our municipal taxes are still going up, and contractual obligations (60.1% of the budget) + accumulated leave payouts are still squeezing the rest of the budget. All facts.
Moody’s projects depletion dates for New Jersey pension assets ranging from 2021 to 2032, assuming annual investment return targets of 7.95% are met. These are due to GASB 67 changes announced last Nov 24th, after the Sept report referenced above. Current NJ treasury data shows that the unfunded pension liability is over $80 billion as of July 1, 2014, see this if you don’t have the correct information https://assets.njspotlight.com/assets/14/1203/1751
Hey 3:13 am, it’s obvious you never ran a business or have any experience in business accounting.
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The percentage of a budget allotted for labor costs, which includes employee salaries, also takes into consideration unemployment insurance taxes, benefits, reimbursements, overtime, workers compensation, leave time and holiday pay.
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Depending on the sector of your business, it can cost between 40% to 80% of gross revenues on employee salaries and benefits combined. Salaries alone can account for 18% to 52% of your operating budget, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.
(https://www.shrm.org/pages/default.aspx)
Considering that the Village is NOT a for profit enterprise the labor costs for Police and Firefighters, by percentage of the Village budget, is well within accepted guidelines for government accounting. Particularly for a municipality which is wholly and solely designed to provide services, not a product. which exactly describes the Village end product, a service, not a product. In this case, payroll will make up at least 50% or more of the gross revenue. In the service industry, your employees are your merchandise; instead of buying goods, you pay for your employees’ labor.
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Try getting educated before you make stupid statements that you can’t defend.
Sorry 3:22am,
The Moody’s report fails to separate the various New Jersey Pension Systems and looks at the N.J. Pension problem as a single issue. The PFRS (Police & Fire) and the PERS (Public Employees Retirement) Systems are divided into two sections, State & Municipal, as clearly shown on page 14 in the chart titled “Pension Fund Actuarial Liabilities and Assets as of July 1, 2013 per GASB 25 and 27 (in Millions) in the Status Report of the New Jersey Pension and Health Benefit Study Commission, see link below.
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https://www.state.nj.us/treasury/pdf/NJPHBSC.pdf
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According to the report the State Pension System has seven retirement plans. Here are the plans ands their funding ratios. PERS – 46.0% Funded – TPAF – 57.1% Funded – PFRS – 48.6% Funded – CP&FPF – 91.5% – SPRS – 67.8% Funded – JRS – 41.7% Funded – POPF – 172.1% Funded.
Total funded ratio for the seven State Pension Plans is just 54.2%.
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Contrast that with the Local or Municipal Pension Systems. There are just two, the PERS – 74.0% Funded – PFRS – 76.7% Funded – For a total funding of 75.4%.
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The report you cite fails to separate the two systems. The Pension shortfall has NOTHING to do with municipal employees, but has everything to do with Teachers and State Employees Pensions. The pension problem is a State issue not a municipal issue.
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So your statement…..
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“Moody’s projects depletion dates for New Jersey pension assets ranging from 2021 to 2032, assuming annual investment return targets of 7.95% are met.”
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…..is only true as it pertains to the State Pension System, NOT the Municipal Pension System. But don’t let the facts prevent you from spinning the truth and lying to support your narrative that municipal Police and Firefighters are the problem. I enjoy shining the light of truth on your lies and showing you for what you are….Chucky Slime.
Looks like 3:22 am should be railing against the Teachers and not the Police and Firefighters. I checked 5:54am’s info and he is correct the pension systems are separate and the funding amounts he posted are exactly from the report he said he used them from. Why is a poster from with an IP address outside NJ posting on this blog anyway? What is the agenda of the poster at 3:22 am?
3:22 am is intellectually lazy. He only sees what he wants to see. That is why he is constantly attacking Police & Firefighters while he completely ignores the BOE 100 million dollar budget and Teachers salaries and benefits. PJ posted the BOE budget earlier and the only thing we heard from this political hack was crickets on that budget!
In his mind it’s not at all possible that the people he voted for that now sit on the council pissed away money on needless projects or are just horrible managers if the taxpayer dollars.
It’s not hard to figure out what this guy is all about ….. He has a vendetta against Police and Firefighters for some reason. Facts don’t matter to this guy. He has his agenda.
You’re right 8:42 not a word from this political hack was said on the BOE budget discussions on this blog. I hadn’t thought about that until you mentioned it. So I went back to check just in case I missed his comments on those discussions and like you said nothing there from him but crickets. Clearly he does have an agenda and some reason he is focused on Police and Firemen. Good call.
Meanwhile, back in reality NJ is paying 3.2 percent, or almost 0.9 percentage point above AAA munis. That gap has more than tripled in the past year and were one of the three lowest rated U.S. states along with IL and CA
years of financial mismanagement and excessive and unsustainable promises to public sector workers including police, fire, judgers and teachers coming home now, the albatrosses are landing. Cang ignore the facts, there’s no money
#33 and #34 are the same IP address as the posts #30~#32…. Five posts debating yourself?
Why are you referencing July 2013 data on pension underfunding. The state updated their estimates on November 24, 2014 based on GASB 67. It shows a much worse picture and is why the state wants to merge the state and municipal systems for PERS and PFRS. Facts please, not stale numbers which don’t give the real picture.
Yes, 10:13 AM, Gross Financial Mismanagement by New Jersey Governors from Whitman through Christie, NOT Public Employees.
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From the New Jersey Pension Study Policy Report – January 2014
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https://watchdog-newjersey.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/files/2014/01/CSI-NJ-Pension-Study-2014.pdf
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Page 2 – The state of New Jersey has been funding pensions for state workers dating back nearly a
century. For decades the state’s pension system operated on the notion that it would use “a scientific
(actuarial) basis” for financing benefits to ensure the fiscal stability of pensions. But starting in the
early 1990s elected officials began manipulating the system to achieve short-term budget relief,
starting with the Pension Reevaluation Act of 1992. Over the space of two decades state legislators
passed a series of politically motivated bills which changed the basic methods and assumptions by
which the assets and liabilities in the system’s seven pension funds are valued. Those changes
understated the future obligations of the pension system and led to lower recommended contributions
by the state than were necessary to keep the pension system adequately funded. This was often done
explicitly to achieve budget savings. At the same time, elected officials continued increasing benefits
for workers with little regard for the impact on the stability of the pension system.
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Page 4- The state of New Jersey first began using public money to finance government employee
pensions nearly a century ago, when the legislature established the Teachers’ Pension and Annuity
Fund and noted in the legislation creating the fund that its management would be governed on a sound,
“scientific (actuarial) basis.” Over the next seven decades the state added a host of other retirement
programs, including funds for police and fire personnel, prison officers, judges, and general state
workers. The state continued contributing to these programs on a regular basis, so that the state’s
pension system reflected, by 1995, a high level of funding with only modest unfunded liabilities of
$2.9 billion.
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However, as fiscal pressures began to weigh on the state budget in the economic downturn of
the early 1990s, Trenton initiated a series of maneuvers to diminish the impact of financing pensions
on the state budget. Thus began a nearly two decades long period in which state politicians used
questionable accounting and actuarial practices to minimize the debts of the pension system, ignored
their obligation to fully contribute proper amounts to state worker pensions, and increased benefits to
workers even as the system’s debts were piling up. The result was a pension system that even today,
according to a June 27, 2013 study by the ratings agency Moody’s, remains one of the five worst funded
state pension systems in the country despite reforms the state put in place two years ago.
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Page 6 – The legislation allowed the state to take a ‘holiday’ from any contributions when the pension
fund had more than 100 percent of the assets needed to pay its accrued liabilities. Thanks in part to the
money from the pension borrowing, which made the pension system seem well-funded, the state
reduced or completely eliminated its own contributions to from fiscal 1997 through fiscal 2003. The
state, for instance, contributed no money at all to the Public Employees Retirement System and the
State Police Retirement System in these years. Meanwhile, it contributed just twice, in 1997 and 1999,
to the Teachers’ Pension and Annuity Fund.
Isn’t it interesting that ALL of N.J. Pension Plans were FULLY funded in 1990s until the Governors began using the pension funds to balance the state budgets. The states pension problem has nothing to do with what you claimed:
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“excessive and unsustainable promises to public sector workers including police, fire, judgers and teachers”
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That’s a bold face lie. The problem is that the State Legislature and the current and past Governors have raped the Pension system for their own political benefits. It’s quite obvious that if the Governors didn’t spend money they didn’t have on their pet projects, and they properly funded the pensions as they were suppose to the state wouldn’t be in this mess. That is a FACT Chucky!
10:21 am Of course the state wants to merge the local with the states plans, that way the municipalities get to help bail out the state from it’s underfunding. Are you that stupid that you can’t see that?
So you won’t admit that pension, healthcare and accumulated leave benefits have been too generous, esp for police and fire who get to retire after 25 years on a full pension and subsidized healthcare? If they live to mid-80s they make more than when they worked. Teachers get less for fewer years, avg $47k vs $57k for PFRS, but only from age 62 vs. age 52 on avg for PFRS. Police & Fire pensions over 30+ yrs through mid-80s MUCH more generous than 20 years in smaller teachers pension through same mid 80s life exp
#39, lots of hyperbole to explain why pensions aren’t the problem, it’s the Dem Governors you and your unions elected! So what’s the difference?
Hey 3:50 PM,
You are entitled to your opinion. But your opinion does not make it a FACT, you may very well believe that pension, healthcare and accumulated leave benefits are too generous for police and fire who get to retire after 25 years on a full pension with healthcare. Problem is that’s your opinion, it is not a FACT!
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I think your salary is way more than you deserve. You shouldn’t get the huge bonuses that you get either. So why won’t you admit that your salary and bonuses are way too generous for the type of work that you do.
3:55 pm said,
#39, lots of hyperbole to explain why pensions aren’t the problem, it’s the Dem Governors you and your unions elected! So what’s the difference?
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Really 3:55 pm, so quoting a report commissioned by the state of NJ is now hyperbole? What makes your opinion more of an authority than that report? A bit sanctimonious now aren’t you?
#44, it would help you’d read the final report from Feb 2015, and not quoted the interim report from last Sept. Your facts are dated. Page 5 of the final report says, “Since the release of our Status Report, which reported 2013 data, the State has Based on new released 2014 data reflecting new standards issued by GASB… On the basis of these figures, TPAF, the teachers’ pension fund, has a projected “depletion date,” the year in which it is projected to be unable to cover its projected payments, of 2027.The projected depletion date for PERS, the primary fund covering State employees, is 2024. JRS, the judicial pension fund, is projected to reach its depletion date in 2021.
8:57 am
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The “History” of the problem has not changed #45. Historical FACTS are FACTS and do not change. The Government employees are not the problem, the past legislatures and Governors caused the problem. I know you don’t want to hear that because it doesn’t fit your narrative that government employees and their unions are the problem. Sorry, the FACTS don’t fit your agenda.
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At the end of the day if the current and past Governors had properly funded the pension systems there would NOT be a pension problem today. Now tell me is that true or not……a simple question. Lets see if you can answer it correctly.
Still no mention of the fact that NJ public pensioners already withdraw over $8.7bn a year – more than $700mn a month – from NJ’s pension plan. On a fund with $80mn in assets. Yet those retirees contributed less than 10% of those funds, so investment returns, plus employer and employee contributions need to be over 10% a year just to stay flat. It will only get worse with baby boomers retiring (Ridgewood has nine confirmed retirements in the next two years), and the state and Village use the wrong mortality rates, ie retirees are living longer now. Even if the state does make full contributions, it’s actuarial certainty that these funds will deplete
Yea, just as I though 11:41 am, you couldn’t bring yourself to address the question. But in spite of that we both know the true answer to the question.
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The FACT is had the Past and Present Governors made the pension contribution they should have, the pension fund would NOT have the shortfall it has today. The Pension Funds would be properly funded and quite possibly over funded taking into consideration the stock market performance since March of 2009 when the markets hit bottom. Because the money that wasn’t put into the pension system couldn’t be invested and therefore it couldn’t rise with the stock market or benefit from the dividends and compound interest since the 1990s. This is an irrefutable fact.
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What makes no sense at all is your wanting to punish the employees who had nothing to do with the theft from the Pension Funds and reward the thief’s…. the present and past Governors & Legislators. These are the people who spent your tax dollars foolishly on special interest groups and vote getting payoffs. Why aren’t you mad as hell at them? Were back to your narrative again, complaining to the Legislature and the Governor isn’t part of your narrative because your a political hack and your narrative is to demonize Police and Firefighters, plain and simple.
All these “facts” just to get back to the original post… There’s no money. It’s gone to pay for Xanadu and state roads that cost 12x the national avg.
Bull crap…..how about we stop this waste first!
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Stop funding stem cell research with NJ taxpayer Dollars.
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Stop providing funding to state colleges for sports with taxpayer dollars.
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Stop propping up Atlantic City with taxpayer Dollars.
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Stop Trenton’s $6 billion open space proposal
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And that’s just the beginning of the vast waste of taxpayer dollars.
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Don’t tell me the state doesn’t have the money. The legislature and Governor don’t have a revenue problem they have a SPENDING problem!
https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/11/open_space_ballot_question_passes.html
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New Jersey voters on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment that would dedicate money from a business tax toward open space preservation. The measure creates a permanent funding source for the state to buy and preserve open space. The money comes from the state’s corporate business tax, moving the 4 percent that’s already allocated for broader environmental programs toward the preservation of open space, and bumping that dedication up to 6 percent by 2019.
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https://reason.org/files/new_jersey_open_space_pensions.pdf
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SCR84, if enacted and fully implemented, would escalate spending on land
preservation dramatically relative to previous efforts. Gov. Christie’s latest
budget proposal notes that the current estimate of fiscal year 2015 Corporation
Business Tax receipts is $2.58 billion.9 Assuming similar revenues in fiscal year
2016—given that receipts have ranged between $2.0 and $2.6 billion since fiscal
year 2009—then the proposed six percent earmark for land preservation under
SCR84 would total $154.8 million.
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Even under a very conservative assumption that corporate tax receipts would
merely hold steady over a 30-year period, implementation of SCR84 could yield
at least $4.6 billion earmarked for preservation over that period, in nominal
terms. This represents a more than 50 percent increase relative to what has been
spent thus far on the state’s land preservation efforts over the last 53 years, in
just under half the time.
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SCR84 would cancel that four percent dedication, replacing it with the six
percent dedication to land preservation. In other words, SCR84 would divert
more money away from the general fund. Using the same FY 2015 corporate tax
revenue estimate discussed above, that additional 2 percent equates to $51.6
million less general fund revenue on an annual basis. Increasing this dedication
of corporate tax revenues away from the general fund amid the state’s growing
pension funding crisis seems fiscally irresponsible and unwise.
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With pension payments adding billions in budget spending by law in the near
term—and with massive unfunded liabilities looming for decades into the
future—now is not the time for the state to commit additional resources toward
land preservation. There are simply higher spending priorities elsewhere in the
budget.