The Garden State has long been known as the home of three things: The Boss, Bada Bing, and bloated budgets. On September 29th, Governor Jon Corzine took steps to knock one item off that list; Corzine signed the Public Employee Pension and Benefits Reform Act of 2008 into law, a bipartisan piece of legislation that took quite a bit of fire from the state's all-powerful public workers' unions over the last several months. Supporters claim the law will save New Jersey $150 million in expenses over the next 14 years.
According to the Newark Star-Ledger, the law will raise the retirement age for new public employees from 60 to 62, bar pensions for new workers earning less than $7,500 a year, and eliminate Lincoln's Birthday as a state holiday after contracts expire in 2011. The law will also prohibit public employees from using time worked in other states to reach the 25 years of employment needed to qualify for lifetime health benefits. All of these changes will only affect workers hired on or after November 1st. Corzine described the reforms as "[striking] the right balance of being fair to hardworking public employees and at the same time lightening the burden on our taxpayers."
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, however, are not convinced that this latest piece of legislation is enough to make a difference. Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce, a Republican, noted that "it is troubling that even a minor reform such as this was apparently only signed with reluctance by Governor Corzine". State Senator Nicholas Scutari, a Democrat, added that the pension system is "in trouble" and that "it is not beyond the realm of possibility that the system could collapse". The law is not without its defenders; State Senator Barbara Buono, the chairwoman of the state Budget and Appropriations Committee, said "This legislation isn't perfect, but it will begin to chip away at the culture of abuses and excess that has plagued the pension system for years."
Even with all the talk of collapsing pension systems, the law's most fervent critics have not been elected officials. That honor falls to the group that has long held the most power in the sometimes murky world of New Jersey politics: unions. According to a report in the Asbury Park Press, New Jersey Education Association spokesman Steve Wollmer lashed out at the law on behalf of teachers, saying educators "paid into the pension system while the state took a very irresponsible vacation." Bob Master, spokesman for the Communications Workers of America, said the law "undermines the retirement security of some of the state's lowest income-workers - all to save less than one-twentieth of one percent of the state's annual budget."
So where does all this backbiting leave the taxpayers that will really shoulder the burden on all of this?
The Cherry Hill Post Courier's right-leaning OpEd page doesn't have too much sympathy for the perceived plight of state workers. The Post Courier noted that "New Jersey taxpayers - we who pay the highest property taxes in the nation - cover the cost for all these benefits. Taxpayers can't do it anymore. People are moving out of this state in droves because of the high taxes that feed a high cost of living. Big, expensive government is to blame for the high taxes." In response to criticism that the benefit changes were made outside the realm of collective bargaining, the Post Courier claims "we're glad Corzine and lawmakers were willing to buck their old reluctance to do anything about worker compensation without it being done at the contract negotiating table." Even the Post Courier acknowledges that in a state with an annual operating budget of about $32 billion, saving $150 million over 14 years is "a drop in the bucket."
In a state that has long been known for it's deeply entrenched culture of cronyism and patronage, this legislation is a very big deal. Corzine is up for re-election in 2009 and can no longer automatically count on the union endorsements that served him so well in 2005, even though it is highly doubtful that a group like the NJEA will throw their weight behind a Republican candidate. Corzine, however, is not backing down from any fight. According to the Newark Star-Ledger, he has introduced a sweeping series of ethics and campaign finance reforms that are yet to be embraced by key lawmakers. Can Corzine fight a legislative war on two fronts, while painting himself as a maverick reformer, and win re-election all at the same time? With a personal campaign war chest worth millions, the answer is probably yes. The true drama will be seeing if these reforms will have a real effect on the massive government, and equally massive tax burden, in the nation's most densely populated state. It might be a drop in the bucket, and it might be a baby step, but it's also a start.
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