Posted on 11/18/2018 6:41:11 PM PST by Coleus
TRENTON — The state's top Democrat in the Legislature wants New Jersey voters and taxpayers to rise up and say: We're mad as hell and we're not gonna take it anymore! State Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester, who assembled a bipartisan economic and fiscal policy work group that issued recommendations this summer for pension and budget reforms, said that it’s become crystal clear that changes must be made because “our pension and health care system is not sustainable anymore, and raising taxes in this state is not the answer. This is a state that has a tax problem.”
He said state lawmakers have been coming up with makeshift solutions that move money around to be able to make a partial payment to the state’s pension system and balance the budget. But the state faces at least $142 billion in long-term pension liabilities and $80 billion in unfunded post-retirement medical liabilities. “When you have a problem and you don’t fix it, it doesn’t go away, it gets worse. It really gets worse," he said last week during a forum sponsored by the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants.
He pointed out the amount of money that’s required to be paid into the public worker pension system will more than double over the next four years, from $3.2 billion to $6.6 billion.
But “we don’t have any revenue," he said. "Our budget is $37.5 billion now. Every dollar has been committed.” “We want to spend more money on transit, on schools, pre-K — they’re all noble causes, but where does it come from?”
So what do we do? Sweeney said “we can’t tax any more." "I’m not raising taxes; I’m done. We’re either going to fix this or we’ll just deal with the realities of the dollars that we have, like business owners do.” Earlier this summer, the panel's Path to Progress report included these recomendations:
• Shifting state and local public sector workers with less than five years of service out of the current pension system and placing them in a hybrid system that would resemble a 401(k).
• Changing the level of health benefits for public workers from “platinum platinum plus” to “gold.”
• Requiring retirees to pay the same percent of their health-care premiums they paid when they were in the workforce.
Sweeney has been a state legislator since 2002. He considered running for governor to succeed Chris Christie but backed out when it became clear that Phil Murphy already had secured enough support from Democratic Party leaders. Since Murphy's election, the progressive governor's biggest roadblocks for his agenda have been set down by Sweeney and fellow Democratic lawmakers.
Sweeney noted New Jersey has one of the highest tax rates, “and if we don’t start reversing this and going in a different direction, and we don’t do it now, this state is in serious financial trouble. We’ll continue to drop.”
To try and generate support and momentum for the changes put forth in the Path to Progress report, Sweeney said he’s been meeting “with mayors and freeholders and county officials around the state. We’ve been meeting with business groups, I need to engage the public on this.”
“It’s like the old 'Network' movie, where the anchor gets up [and says] 'I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.' I need to get the public’s anger focused on the fact that there is no solutions coming out of Trenton," he said. Borrowing a page from Christie, Sweeney said he will start doing town halls. “I’m going to be getting out there, getting as much attention, getting it out on social media, just trying to tie in to the public because elected officials respond to taxpayers.”
Sweeney noted $20 billion in wealth has left the state over the past eight years and the trend will continue if the state adds taxes on the rich — something progressive Democrats, including Murphy, support. He said New Jersey didn’t wind up in such a horrible fiscal mess by chance. It happened “by politicians working and screwing around with the pension system, and it created such a hole that we can’t come back from it without really a whole new structure.” You can contact reporter David Matthau at David.Matthau@townsquaremedia.com
NJ'S COSTLY PENSIONS
A New Jersey 101.5 series takes a deep look into the public pension systems to understand the numbers and examine proposed changes.
They get $190,000 pensions: Retirement systems hit $11B
Should cop who watched teens burn to death get special pension?
Retirees can recover career of NJ pension contributions in just 4 years
Dead retirees cost NJ pension funds $650 million a year
Color me skeptical.
NJ mistook their lockbox for a lunchbox, and now they ate it all up.
As long as you remain a Democrat, you will be part of the problem.
Seems kinda late for this. And he’s only one guy.
They are just about out of other people’s money...
By democRAT politicians who taxed us to death so they can maintain their power by buying votes in Newark, Trenton, Camden, etc.
From a Democrat? Amen!
NJ is already the highest taxed state in the country and spending is up the wazoo.
And he’s only one guy. >>
he’s the head of the Senate, whatever he says, goes. As a matter of fact, he helped Christie pass the 2% cap on govt. agencies and towns from raising the budget. It helped property-tax payers immensely.
Suddenly he sounds like a raving conservative.
NJ with a $142 billion pension liability? Ha, amateurs. I’m in Illinois our pension liability is $250 billion.
Hes not a prog Marxist like Murphy.
The Governor’s agenda hasn’t gone anywhere. Sanity in a Blue State is a rare thing.
Kalifornia has the same problem! Then add Jerry Brown’s fast train to nowhere! Kali is on that train to bankruptcy.
Witness Protection needed stat.
A DINO?
Sweeney is one of the more sensible Democrats in the state; unlike Illinois which has worse public pension problems and seems determined not to do anything about it other than raise taxes continually instead of changing a system they cannot afford.
“..he’s been meeting “with mayors and freeholders and county officials around the state.”
I thought he said “freeloaders”....but that particular group probably doesn’t want to meet with him.
Murphy will be a one-term governor.
Yup. Only Trump’s ratings top his.
Pure BS. NJ has a revenue problem to feed the political beast. Taxes is their ONLY answer.
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