Assemblymen Jon Bramnick and John Wisniewski discussed Gov. Chris Christie’s Budget Address with NJTV News Chief Political Correspondent Michael Aron.
The pair discussed points that Christie addressed, including the pension fund.
Bramnick said New Jersey is an expensive place to live and that the state can’t afford the benefits that it’s paying for now.
“Sure this is a dose of reality,” said Bramnick. “It’s just too expensive to live in New Jersey and part of that is we can’t afford benefits that we’re paying now. The system will go broke. So apparently in cooperation with the teachers and NJEA, there’s an understanding that they’ll transfer the pension, the entire program to the union. Let the union run it and the state will send them an annual payment. Except, you have to keep in mind unless you reduce the cost of health care benefits in the state to retired employees, it was from a different type of plan, you’re not going to be able to afford the pension plan.”
Wisniewski said that Christie has made promises about the pension system before, back in 2011. He said that the governor broke those promises and Wisniewski questions why people should believe the governor now. Wisniewski also said in order to respond to the governor’s plans on the pension system, the Democrats will have to wait to see the details.
“Well, we have to see the details,” said Wisniewski. “The governor talked about a road map. What he talked about was a final destination. We haven’t seen any of the details about how this is going to work. We know this, the governor wants to offload, privatize the pension system. It’s a page out of the national Republican playbook where they’ve talked about privatizing Social Security. This is really a page for the Christie for President campaign, not really about running the state of New Jersey.”