By David Cruz
Correspondent
He probably assumed that he’d still be campaigning, but on the eve of his first budget address as a former presidential candidate, Chris Christie is right back in the middle of the pension reform debate as the commission he appointed to recommend changes to the system is out with a new report, and it sounds a lot like the last report they issued.
The recommendations include switching workers to cheaper health plans, increasing their out of pocket expenses and creating so-called Retiree Reinvestment Accounts.
The governor – who trumpeted his pension reform success as a presidential candidate – pushed for these same reforms in his State of the State address earlier this year, chiding public unions and their Democratic allies for their scratching one another’s backs at the expense of taxpayers.
“Thirty million dollars from the NJEA for you and $3 billion in tax increases for all New Jerseyans. What a deal,” he scolded the legislature. “You see we must tell New Jersey the truth. This is the road to ruin. Our non-partisan commission put forward an alternative that would avoid this calamity for our state and this injustice for our taxpayers.”
The unions, as they did when the commission issued its recommendations last year, say the problem is not worker healthcare costs. They suggest that the commission is just trying to scare middle class taxpayers into opposing a proposed constitutional amendment that would force the state to make pension payments quarterly.
“It is true that millionaires should pay their fair share and don’t in this state and it is true that the Christie administration has given over $6 billion in tax cuts to wealthy people at the same time that they’re not paying for the pension,” scoffed Communications Workers of America New Jersey director Hetty Rosenstein, “but it is not true that middle class people have to fear a tax increase because of the constitutional amendment.”
Commission member Thomas Healey wrote in an op ed this week “With all of its other priorities and problems, the State cannot afford to spend $11 billion a year on employee benefits … The commission firmly believes there is no realistic way for the State to spend its way out of the hole it has dug for itself.”
The commission report suggests the state could save over $2 billion a year in health benefits spending and use that money to preserve the existing pension benefits. The report predicts that, at the current pace, health benefits would take up 27 percent of the state budget by the year 2022. It recommends keeping those payments to about 15 percent of the budget or less. Rosenstein says she hears a different message from the commission.
“Stop the defined pension plan that is there and put your money into a 401K so we don’t have to pay any more for that and then we’ll lower your healthcare and all of the money, the additional money that you’re gonna pay, will be used then to pay off our debt for the retirees,” she said.
The governor will make his annual budget address Tuesday. How many references he makes to pensions and benefits will be an indication of how engaged he might be in fixing some of the state’s pressing issues, now that he’s got nothing else to do.