‘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)
Maybe if he were not an absentee governor he could at least get the ball rolling, but seeing he has not done much of anything i doubt it.
It’s not the governors,fault democrats control ther state
fat boy is so full of b s.
Bush’s fault
Great picture of Sweeney next to Sarlo… those two thugs alone have diverted BILLIONS to overpaid union labor that costs state tax payers $2 million a mile to pave state roads in NJ… they’re squarely to blame for the Transportation Fund’s $17 billion debt, and squarely to blame for trying to raise gasoline taxes without ever even bothering to ask why NJ spends 3X as much as the next highest state on state roads, over $2mn in NJ compared to $600,000 per mile in MA. Open bid this work to private contractors and we’ll get better work for 1/3 of the cost.
So the state’s bipartisan panel on pension and health reform found that without a course correction, these costs will absorb 23% of the state budget – $8 billion – within two years, roughly double the portion today.The amount of pension checks sent out will also roughly double to almost $17 billion by the end of 2017 from $8.7 billion in 2013. For perspective, the millionaire’s tax favored by Democrats would raise $600 million a year, barely enough to make a dent. There is no feasible way to raise taxes high enough to cover this cost. The same is true on the spending side. You could fire every state employee tomorrow, and you still wouldn’t raise enough money to fill this hole.