Breaching a pension promise for political gain Poll Results
in laTe 2009, when Chris Christie was a can- workers, and their unions, and to cut benefits The health care reform signed by Obama:
Corner Office
didate, he made this explicit, written, signed outside of the legal collective bargaining process.
promise to tens of thousands of firefighters and so much for a “sacred trust.” Have a hard-hitting stance on a New Jersey
police officers: “The notion that i would elimi- The gaping hole in this year’s state budget business issue? If you are a business or
29.1%
nate, change, or was not made any smaller by axing public work- policy leader with a strong opinion, we 37.3%
alter your pension ers’ pension benefits, because the changes those want to hear from you. Please send op-ed
is not only a lie, but bills make will not save the state a penny for proposals to editorial@njbiz.com.
4.7%
could not be further decades, nor solve the staggering pension plan
from the truth. Your shortfall going forward. in June 2008, the pension Christie and legislators tout the pension 28.9%
pension and bene- fund’s market value was $78.6 billion, and the reform legislation as an effort to ensure shared
fits will be protected state estimated that it had a $34 billion shortfall. sacrifice by public workers. Yet, they have given Is a long-overdue measure to expand
when i am elected By June 2009, the fund nosedived to $62.9 billion, up $800 million in revenue by letting a tax lapse insurance coverage
governor.” with Treasury estimates that it has $46 billion less on our state’s wealthiest citizens. stoking jeal- Has merit, but will be harmful to my company
as the newly than needed to meet obligations. ousy, the governor and legislature have shame- Is a noble idea, but it doesn’t solve
elected governor, where does the fault lay? looking at the underlying problems
Christie broke that Carla Katz reforms the governor and legislature raced to Is yet another mandate business can’t a ord
promise with the enact, you might believe that fault for the dra- The fund is broken and out of
very first bill he signed. That must be a record. matic underfunding of the pension funds rests control precisely because it has
The letters from Christie to police and fire with so-called greedy public employees and not been funded. Exchanging strong words
union members pledged that the pension agree- their overly rich benefits. You would be wrong.
ment was a “sacred trust,” and assured them fault lies squarely with the governor’s office and over health care reform
“nothing will change for the pensions of cur- with the legislature, which over the past two fully lambasted hard-working people in an
ReadeRs aRe shaRply divided over the
rent firefighters, future firefighters or retirees in decades unfairly refused to pay their portion of effort to incite public fury over their presumed
health care reform bill president Barack Obama
a Christie administration” and, “the claim that pension obligations, while workers each paid benefits. in fact, the average public employee
signed into law last month, though a majority
any harm would come to your pension when i’m every penny of what they owed. a combination pension payout is about $23,000 a year after 25
supported at least the idea of reform, even if
elected governor is absolutely untrue. it is a 100 of no, or low, state contributions; market losses; years of service. Public employees’ secure retire-
they felt this legislation misses the mark.
percent lie.” Christie went back on his written and whimsical investment-return projections ment depends on the funds being solvent. They,
David du Pont, of HEPCO Inc., wrote,
word just two short months into his term. while are the real culprits in this debacle. and their unions, have bargained a wide array of
“No nation or state has ever taxed itself to
new Jersey citizens have come to expect candi- To make things worse, as he cuts workers’ concessionary reforms to secure that end.
prosperity. … We need to be making spend-
dates for public office to blur the truth line, we do pension benefits, the governor refuses to pay at its heart, the promise of a pension is a
ing cuts, not creating new entitlements.”
not often get to see them do it in writing. any of the $3 billion the state owes the pension contractual promise that should be inviolable.
Norman Politziner, of NJP Associates,
The ‘pension reform’ bills Christie signed funds this year. in one of the most ludicrous The governor and legislature have breached that
is concerned about the fine print:
into law at the end of March cut pension and statements of this debate, Christie, in his bud- promise for political gain in the guise of fiscal aus-
“This bill has 150 pages of needed re-
health benefits for hundreds of thousands of get speech, said, “our pension system must be terity. Mohandas Gandhi said it best: “a breach of
form and another 2,200 pages of bribes,
new Jersey workers, including firefighters, police, reformed before we can, or should, fund a bro- promise is a base surrender of truth.” u
payoffs, inside deals and who knows what
probation officers, teachers, and state and local ken, out-of-control system.” The fund is broken ------------------------------------------------------
else,” he wrote, predicting it “will increase
government workers. The governor and the leg- and out of control precisely because it has not Carla Katz is of counsel with Fox and Fox LLP, in
the costs of health care and put a strain on
islature used the state’s economic woes, and the been funded. Continuing that failure clearly Livingston, and is the former president of the Com-