the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, The 25-member Economic and Fiscal Policy Workgroup, comprised of economists and tax experts under the bipartisan leadership of Senate Budget Chair Paul Sarlo, Senator Steve Oroho and Assembly Majority Leader Louis Greenwald in the main recommended the following:
- Shift all state and local government employees and retiree’s health care coverage from platinum to gold;
- require all new state and local government retirees to pay the same percent of premium costs they paid when working;
- merge the School Employees Health Benefits Program into the larger State Health Benefits Plan and make the plans identical in coverage;
- cap accrued terminal leave payouts for state and local retirees at $7,500 or the amount currently earned; and make those payments based on average career salary;
- require state and local governments to pay the first $15,000 or remaining earned sick leave immediately or allocate it on a pre-tax basis to retiree healthcare premiums for qualifying employees;
- require an ongoing third-party audit of health care claims;
- require families with multiple state of local government employers to select only one health care plan from one employer.
Sarlo acknowledged that some of the items among the recommendations would be easier to implement than others.
On the schools reform front, the panel wants to:
- merge all K-4, K-5, K-6, K-8, and K-9 school districts into K-12 regional districts to improve the quality of education and promote efficiency;
- permit the establishment of two countywide school district pilot programs;
- move toward full state funding and administration of extraordinary special education;
- establish a state funding and administration of extraordinary special education;
- establish a state-level group to address students for whom an individual evaluation placement team is considering a residential program;
- establish a special education study commission to review the current capitation formula that provides all districts with the same special education and regardless of how many special education students they serve;
- reform the hearing process for special education placements and disputes by appointing Office of Administrative Law judges with experience in special education who would hear only special education cases within the 60-day timeline.