Obamacare Will Burst N.J. Benefits Bubble
Aug. 14
By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
Governor Christie is on the Ocean City Music Pier today pushing for another sweeping round of public employee benefit reforms, Save Jerseyans.
It’s timely.
You know what the pension numbers look like because you’re a regular reader. That being said, our obnoxiously gigantic $40 billion in unfunded pension liabilities is eclipsed only by a public employee health benefit program that’s $47 billion in the red. What else could you expect from a state with roughly 81 government employees per square mile?
But it’s not simply a matter of how many people are drawing pensions and health benefits, retired and active. Nope. It’s how much each plan costs! A new report from the nonpartisan Pew Charitable Trusts and the MacArthur Foundation released Wednesday discovered, unsurprisingly, that our state’s public employee health benefits are the highest in the nation –  $1,334 on average – as opposed to $963 nation-wide.
Assembly Republican Budget Officer Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth) seized upon the reports release to reaffirm the importance of Governor Christie’s newly-convened reform study commission. “Offering benefits at a fair cost to dedicated public employees is the right thing to do,” added O’Scanlon. “Providing Rolls Royce coverage that taxpayers cannot afford is unacceptable. Under this scenario, everyone loses.”
– See more at: https://savejersey.com/2014/08/health-benefits-public-employee-new-jersey/#sthash.OnaWnpOg.dpuf
well stop steeling the money from the fund. how much money did the fund make last year. big money, and they took it for other shit like the big mall next to giants field. so people get the right info then talk.
#1, our state’s annual public employee health benefits are the highest in the nation, that’s not the right info? NJ’s public employee health benefit program is $47 billion in the red, because we pay as bills are incurred. We haven’t reserved anything against the future cost of all of the public sector healthcare bills because it’s a PAYGO system where we pay-as-you-go. That’s like a family running a $47 billion credit card bill with nothing saved in the bank to pay for it. So it will come out of our future wages, i.e. state & local taxes every year, which is why politicians are bending over backwards trying to get the current system to pay for current & retired public employees at the expense of everyone else. Nice sleight of hand, too: you act like you just deserve Rolls-Royce healthcare, like its your right, without even questioning how much it’s cost hardworking New Jerseyans. Classic “Me first!” greed.
to #2,
Our state’s employee health benefit program is $47 billion in the red because GOVERNORS and the legislatures have stolen funds from the health care and pension funds each and every year since Gov. Whitman. We are talking Billions of dollars in lost contributions and Billions of dollars in lost earnings on investments.
#2 doesn’t mention that FACT since he benefited by the theft from the health benefits program and pension system since the Governors didn’t need to increase their income taxes to raise the money to fund their pet programs. It was a win/win for the Governors, just take the money from the government employees health care fund and pension fund and say your not raising income taxes during your terms in office.
Well now those chickens are coming home to roost #2!
we pay as bills are incurred. We haven’t reserved anything against the future cost of all of the public sector healthcare bills because it’s a PAYGO system where we pay-as-you-go. That’s like a family running a $47 billion credit card bill with nothing saved in the bank to pay for it. So it will come out of our future wages, i.e. state & local taxes every year, which is why politicians are bending over backwards trying to get the current system to pay for current & retired public employees at the expense of everyone else. Nice sleight of hand, too: you act like you just deserve Rolls-Royce healthcare, like its your right, without even questioning how much it’s cost hardworking New Jerseyans. Classic “Me first!” greed.
#3, you do realize your state and local taxes are ALREADY the highest in the entire US? I think the fat union chickens have already been roosting, sorry to burst your balloon. Maybe you just think its okay to pay the highest taxes in the country because it funds your extravagant pension and Rolls-Royce healthcare coverage for life? How have the Governors stolen money from future healthcare bills ?
You’re talking about the $40bn pension underfunding #3. #2 is referring to the additional $47bn we owe for healthcare underfunding. These entitlements have nothing to do with Governors since Whitman borrowing funds from the pension, and besides, tell us when exactly you’ve ever missed your monthly pension check or had your healthcare bills go unpaid? And you’re telling us the unions didn’t endorse all these Governors because they promised so much to union members? You get what you vote for.
#4 since you are demonstrating how little you really know on the subject allow me to educate you. You said…..
“you do realize your state and local taxes are ALREADY the highest in the entire US?”
Yes, that comes with the cost of real estate prices. We have the highest dollar per acre and sq. footage of building in the nation. As such costs for living expenses in New Jersey are higher than other states with lower cost per acre and sq. footage of building. Higher housing costs equates to higher labor rates, DUH!
I think the fat union chickens have already been roosting, sorry to burst your balloon.
What you think is irrelevant, the facts are all that matter. You say fat Union Chickens like that really matters. The FACT is the New Jersey elected officials cause the current problems by taking money from the pension system for years and not repaying it back into the system. Then when there wasn’t any money to take they stopped properly funding the pension systems. This isn’t my opinion it is a FACT.
That, along with the financial industry, which produced mortgage backed securities that they knew were worthless has brought us to where we are today. These worthless mortgage securities were sold to unsuspecting buyers, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This was the underlying cause of the 2008 market crash which bottomed out on March 9, 2009 at 6,547.05 points from a high of 14,000.00.
Once the stock market decline began New Jersey tax revenues from stock sales, which produce long and short term capital gains taxes, and sales of merchandise dried up for more than 4 years because many residents lost their jobs, no job no N.J. income tax. These are FACTS not opinion.
Maybe you just think its okay to pay the highest taxes in the country because it funds your extravagant pension and Rolls-Royce healthcare coverage for life? How have the Governors stolen money from future healthcare bills.
Well that’s an interesting observation but it’s completely wrong. I suspect you have an axe to grind against government retirees. I live in New Jersey because I like living here and I don’t mind paying the taxes since I receive services that can not be matched in any other state, and I have lived in five other states that had lower housing costs and taxes but provided only the very basic of government services. If your only concern is the amount of taxes your paying is too high I can suggest some locations with much lower taxes, but I doubt you would be happy living there…..
yes and this is why people and businesses are moving out of new jersey in droves
Nice try buddy, it was the AFL-CIO that endorsed Whitman’s “pension bonds” in the first place in exchange for major pension enhancements, you should study history. Charles Wowkanech,president of the NJ AFL-CIO at the time, endorsed the plan which allowed NJ state Republican senators Peter Inverso (Mercer and Middlesex Counties) and
Richard La Rossa (West Trenton) to vote in favor of the plan and get it passed in the NJ legislature.
Wow #7 your ignorance knows no bounds does it. When Whitman cut her so called “Pension Bond Deal” the NJ Public Pension Funds were funded in excess of 100% (actually 105% to be exact) and the so called enhancements were covered by the pension overfunding.
Try educating yourself by reading the story from the link below, that way you can sound more like an educated person and not a fool.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/looting-the-pension-funds-20130926?print=true
Here is a quote from that article…..
Today, the same Wall Street crowd that caused the crash is not merely rolling in money again but aggressively counterattacking on the public-relations front. The battle increasingly centers around public funds like state and municipal pensions. This war isn’t just about money. Crucially, in ways invisible to most Americans, it’s also about blame. In state after state, politicians are following the Rhode Island playbook, using scare tactics and lavishly funded PR campaigns to cast teachers, firefighters and cops – not bankers – as the budget-devouring boogeymen responsible for the mounting fiscal problems of America’s states and cities.
Not only did these middle-class workers already lose huge chunks of retirement money to huckster financiers in the crash, and not only are they now being asked to take the long-term hit for those years of greed and speculative excess, but in many cases they’re also being forced to sit by and watch helplessly as Gordon Gekko wanna-be’s like Loeb or scorched-earth takeover artists like Bain Capital are put in charge of their retirement savings.
It’s a scam of almost unmatchable balls and cruelty, accomplished with the aid of some singularly spineless politicians. And it hasn’t happened overnight. This has been in the works for decades, and the fighting has been dirty all the way.
Weird, I guess you think all of the subsidized pensions, healthcare and accumulated leave payouts are your “right” without ever considering if the cost of all the promises made are sustainable or not. Too bad, they’re not.
Wait #8, you’re admitting that the unions demand pension enhancements because the pension plan was 105% funded ? It all makes sense now, Whitman didn’t want to add more to the plan at the time because the unions were asking for MORE enhancements, she even said that. That’s called trying to line your pockets at the expense of hard working New Jerseyans. What, you need G6 private jet healthcare coverage because your Rolls-Royce plan only covers part of your viagra bill ?
What #10? No comment on the Rolling Stone article on how you and your fat cat WAll STREET greedy friends caused the 2008 financial collapse of the American economy and how you and your greedy biddies are trying to make it look like government employees are to blame for what you caused!!!
Yea I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
Seriously # 10 nice spin on the pension issue. Interesting you don’t mention the following facts:
1) Every Governor beginning with Whitman stole money from the Pension systems to fund their pet projects and programs and avoided raising income and sales taxes so they could have it both ways. they appeased their voter base and claimed they didn’t raise taxes. And never paid the money back.
2) Beginning with Governor McGreevy when there wasn’t any excess money to steal from the pension system they began underfunding the pension system by not putting in the states share of money, as required by the NJ state constitution. Once again they used the money for their pet projects and programs telling the taxpayers, look I did all this stuff without raising your taxes.
3) Now, because of what you #10 and your FAT CAT GREEDY Wall street friends did to crash the American economy, you want everyone to believe the government worker is responsible for the horrible situation the state has financially.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by your comment, which ignores the Rolling Stone Article entirely. You and your FAT CAT GREEDY Wall Street buddies are looking to blame anyone else but yourselves for this mess. Sorry the cat is out of the bag and you my friend are full of crap!
#8, you’re quoting MATT TAIBBI from the Rolling Stone and calling it FACT? This is a guy who called Goldman Sachs a “Vampire Squid” and who now works with people like Glenn Greenwald, who gives voices to traitors like Ed Snowden? Clearly you have no sense of your place; if it wasn’t Wall Street employees like the former CFO of GS living in Ridgewood and paying his property taxes, you wouldn’t have such generous pension and healthcare benefits. Where do you think all of those people taking the buses and trains every day from Ridgewood are going? They’re working hard so you can line your pockets at their expense and then crap all over them on this blog with your sense of entitlement, while blaming everyone but yourself with your indignant attitude, like you’ve ever missed a pension check or seen a healthcare bill go unpaid. Have you ever heard the expression “Cutting offyour nose to spite your face?” That’s you.
Well put # 8
# 10 said
the unions demand pension enhancements because the pension plan was 105% funded ?
Nice try but Buzzzzzz WRONG!
Whitman offered the pension enhancements so she could get her Bond scheme.
so #8 says the NJ Public Pension Funds were funded in excess of 100% (actually 105% to be exact) and the so called pension enhancements were covered by the pension overfunding, but #13 says Whitman offered the pension enhancements so she could get her pension bond scheme. Both post imply the same thing, that a deal was cut by the unions in return for pension enhancements, but now let’s blame all Governors since Whitman and not take any of the blame ourselves for agreeing to excessive wage increases which drove pension payments ever higher, as well as Rolls-Royce healthcare coverage while the rest of us work hard to pay for it? Just here in Ridgewood alone, Gabbert agreed to reopen the contracts in 2010 – at HUGE taxpayer expense including 4% annual wage increases in a recession – in order to pay the top public safety officials MORE so that he could then go the Council and ask for a 12% retroactive wage increase for himself just so he could get paid more then the top guys reporting to him. And that’s the fault of taxpayers?
Surely it’s a sign of the apocalypse when you have union thugs posting on the Ridgewood blog about how they’re getting screwed by everyone ?!?
little late for that dont you think ?
Yes #12 I am quoting MATT TAIBBI from the Rolling Stone and calling it FACT! He was right on the money (pardon the pun) when he called Goldman Sachs a “Vampire Squad”. They are just that, like a vampire, they steal investors money through their fees and administration charges. Up until recently they hid their fees, but they can no longer due to legislation.
#15 what about the BILLIONS of dollars that should have been put into the pension system by every governor since Florio…..No mention of that in your posts.
https://online.wsj.com/articles/new-jersey-pension-woes-spur-blame-game-1401331289
Here is a quote from this May 28, 2014 Wall Street Journal Article:
New Jersey’s pension system was fully funded as late as 2002, said David Draine, a senior researcher at Pew Charitable Trusts who compiles statewide data, noting the fund then was in better shape than the national average.
Slowdowns in the national economy have since hurt New Jersey’s fund, with pension-investment returns dipping after the dot-com stock-market crash in 2001 and the economic recession of 2008.
2002 was 12 years ago
Yea James and 2003 was 11 years ago …….so your point is?
jon corzine