Buono: Roll back
workers' '01 pension hike
By JONATHAN TAMARI,
thnt.com Online, April 15, 2008
TRENTON — A key state lawmaker
called Monday for revisiting several controversial, but potentially
money-saving, plans to cut pensions for government workers.
Sen. Barbara Buono, D-Middlesex, chairwoman of the Senate Budget and
Appropriations Committee, called for rolling back a 2001 pension increase,
raising the state government retirement age to 62, limiting retirees to a single
job when calculating their benefits and knocking part-time workers out of the
state's pension systems.
Buono said the changes, first proposed by a bipartisan panel of lawmakers in
2006, would save money and fight abuses. The new rules would apply to new
employees only.
"The pension system is really meant for career employees," Buono said at a
hearing on the Department of the Treasury budget.
Buono criticized the low threshold for gaining pension credit — $1,500 of pay a
year — and rules letting workers cobble together multiple jobs that result in
larger retirement checks.
Treasurer David Rousseau said Corzine would support changes that cut part-time
workers from the pension system, possibly by increasing the minimum number of
hours or pay a person must earn to qualify for credit. He said the
administration would "listen" to other suggestions but cautioned that any
changes could impact labor negotiations.
For example, the most controversial idea — reversing the 9 percent pension boost
from 2001 — was on the table when Corzine hammered out the latest public worker
contract. In exchange for dropping that proposal, labor unions agreed to boost
their pension contributions by half a percentage point, up to 5.5 percent,
Rousseau said.
"We're willing to listen to you, we're willing to have discussions, but again ... it needs to fit in the overall context of overall compensation," Rousseau
said.
Buono and other lawmakers, however, pointed out that the 2001 enhancement came
without negotiations. It was sponsored or co-sponsored by 59 lawmakers,
including Buono, and approved nearly unanimously.
The state's pension systems currently have a $28.3 billion deficit. Corzine has
proposed paying about $1.2 billion into the system this year, although actuaries
say the state owes roughly twice as much.
Rousseau noted that the latest contract required workers to pay more for their
own pensions, contribute 1.5 percent of their salaries for health coverage and
raised the retirement age for new workers to 60, from 55.
Labor unions argue that the problem is not benefits but rather the state's
failure for years to put any money into the pension system.
"It is despicable to continue to scapegoat public workers, who have paid every
dime they owed to the pension (system), for the state's decade-long
mismanagement of their fiscal responsibilities," said Carla Katz, president of
the Communication Workers of America Local 1034.
Also at the hearing, Buono called for increased oversight over billions of
dollars of state contracts, saying state officials have not done enough to
prevent cost overruns.
Rousseau, meanwhile, defended a decision to cancel an $85 million contract with
a company that provides medical, dental and pharmaceutical services to prisoners
and turn those duties over to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New
Jersey. He said that even with staffing increases required at UMDNJ the new deal
will save money, although the final details are still being worked out.
jtamari@gannett.com
|
