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
Slave, get back on the Plantation. Tax increases is what We do as DemocRATS!
Sounds like the guy just red pilled.
>> Skeptical you should be. He is a part of the problem
But a committed demagogue wouldn’t argue against the absurd “platinum platinum plus”
This guy is obviously choking on the NJ Democrat vomit.
I love the Garden State, but the assholes that run it should be sleeping with the fishes.
Ran out of other people's money.
He may not want to raise taxes but the rest of them sure do. Our governor even ran on the policy of “tax the rich”.
Sweeney’s power base is south Jersey; he should be secure. That is also why he takes this position; as bad off as northern NJ is, south Jersey is in really bad shape. The cash cow of casinos has crumbled, and with competition right across the Delaware River it is unlikely it can ever recover.
What is that? Concierge medicine? Sheesh.
All these pension problems nationwide will ultimately be “solved “ by the .fedgov printing the money. Just watch. I guarantee it.
He was one of the biggest cheerleaders for higher taxes.
democrats= make unrealistic promises which create real problems, then claim you are only ones to solve the problems.
I know most conservatives are stuck on being consumers and all that happy talk BS but I personally starve the beast when I can.
Hit the accelerator, tap the brakes gently—same result.
Kaboom.
Good for you, we do also. Hitting them in the pocket book is the only thing that will actually make a difference. We have no problem sacrificing a little “convenience” to try and make the future better for our Grandchildren.
I wish more could see how easy and important this really is...
In my neck of the woods it means anything and everything elective is covered with very little or no copay.
Alberta’s Child and I were talking about this yesterday on a previous thread. This is likely the result of the Republican’s 2017 tax plan. Democrats can’t hide any longer behind shifting state taxes to federal and subsidizing their largess. Now, when Democrats raise taxes in these s**t-hole states they run, there’s nowhere to hide.
While it sucks to not be able to deduct their enormous tax burden, this is an indicator that the Republican’s tax plan is working.
I thought Jersey was going to legalize weed and that would take care of everything?
Trump’s tax cut pulling deductibility of state and local taxes is finally forcing tough choices to be made.
This guy will never win another election in New Jersey. He'll either lose and his house will burn down or somebody will find his corpse in the Secaucus dump.
Exactly.
Yep. He’s a huge part of the problem.
Nope. He’s just talking what he thinks some of his constituents want to hear. He’s a major part of the problem in NJ and his family is corrupt as they come. He’ll continue to win elections until he’s replaced by a dem POC.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.