Christie gave raises to 27 staff members this year, report says

Christie gave raises to 27 staff members this year, report says
By Salvador Rizzo/The Star-Ledger on May 29, 2014

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie in the last two months gave raises to the staff members who run his press shop, his schedule and his public appearances, according to a report by The Record.

Of the 27 staff members who got their salary bumped, 24 are aides who set the stage at his town halls, handle his image in the media or schedule his events.

Some of the biggest raises went to Kevin Roberts, a spokesman for the governor, and Dan Robles, a personal assistant who travels with Christie. Each started receiving an extra $35,000 this year, according to data obtained by The Record.

After leaving government last year to serve as a spokesman for Christie's re-election campaign, Roberts is now back in the governor's office as a deputy communications director earning $110,000 a year. Robles is now the director of planning, making $115,000 a year.

"Changes in salary in the main reflect changes in position, promotions, or expanded job responsibilities for these staff members," Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak told the newspaper. (Drewniak's salary was bumped up nearly 4 percent, to $134,000 a year.)

The Christie administration reportedly declined to provide the data until The Record filed a lawsuit.

Christie handed out the raises for his staff at a difficult time for the state's budget. The Republican governor is dealing with a $2.7 billion shortfall in expected revenue for the current fiscal year and the following one, which begins July 1.

In response to the crisis, Christie said he would cut two payments meant for public workers' pensions — from a combined $3.8 billion to $1.38 billion, which is less than Christie promised under a 2011 pension overhaul he signed, and much less than what financial experts say is needed to be fully funding state workers' retirement plans.

Christie is also planning to delay $395 million in property tax relief checks for seniors and disabled residents by nine months, from August to May.

The salary increases will add more than $338,000 a year to the payroll for the governor's office, unless they were offset by reductions elsewhere in Christie's office budget.

A very gluttenous, greedy Slovenor Chris Christie gave huge raises to 27 staff members all the while he is saying he we can't afford our cops, firemen, teachers and state workers. But note that this fat mother f$#%er is only eating up the hard working little guys wages (those who need it most). These 27 crony staff workers ARE state employees! But there part of the greedy governor's team arren't they. During the last four years we have heard Slovenly Christie complain of double dipping pension scammers (while a few who operate under his protective shadow double dip), we have heard him say that state workers MUST sacrifice out of necessity (while he and his cohorts, sate employees all, profit and yes, they too will receive pensions), we have heard his take on all sorts of austerity measures, which are not called austerity measures but are cloaked under other guises (we shall now come them Christerity measures) while he protects the super wealthy 1% of NJ and helps huge mega corporate monguls (like the Rockafeller Corporation) record breaking tax breaks that lead to huge profits, and these only list a few. Its time the fat rat in Rhino's clothing gets unclothed so the public can see him for what he really is: A BIG FAT DIRTY RAT!!!! Keep your hands off our pension funds and benefits!

‘Family Guy’ mocks Chris Christie

‘Family Guy’ mocks Chris Christie in Emmy ad

By Associated PressApril 25, 2014

 TRENTON, N.J — “The Family Guy” is taking on a New Jersey political scandal.
A flier sent to Emmy voters asks them to name the show “best animated program.” It warns, “Vote for us, or it’s time for some traffic problems in Brentwood,” a Los Angeles neighborhood where many Emmy voters live.
The warning is a reference to lane closures last year at the heart of the scandal and a now-infamous email about them. A since-fired aide to Gov. Chris Christie wrote before the closures, “It’s time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” the New Jersey town that saw days of traffic jams. Federal prosecutors are investigating.
On the flier, character Peter Griffin wears a tie and looks almost governor-like.

"Stop playing three-card monty with our retirement fund. The economic games with the lives of our members must stop here and now!"Anthony Miskowski, CWA Local 1033.

"Stop playing three-card monty with our retirement fund. The economic games with the lives of our members must stop here and now!"Anthony Miskowski, CWA Local 1033.

Would you trust this fat Chris-ape with your money?

Christie's pension plan sparks debate at NJ State Investment Council

By Salvador Rizzo/The Star-Ledger  on May 28, 2014 

Gov. Chris Christie's plan to take $2.43 billion meant for public workers' pensions over two years caused some heartburn today at a meeting of the state Investment Council as members representing unions warned it could have long-term consequences for the troubled fund.

The 14-member council advises Christie and state officials on the best ways to invest the $78.8 billion in New Jersey's pension fund — although it doesn't recommend how much the governor should put into the fund every year.

At a council meeting in Trenton today, about 30 public workers and supporters showed up to oppose Christie's plan to take the money designated for pensions to balance his ailing budgets.

Christie has described it as an emergency move to plug a budget shortfall of $2.7 billion in the current and incoming fiscal years. The Republican governor says he would rather cut the pension contributions than raise taxes or cut funding for schools or hospitals.

Over the two-year period, under Christie's plan, the state still would pump $1.38 billion into the pension system. But that's a far cry from the $3.8 billion he proposed at first, and much less than what financial experts say is needed to be fully funding state workers' retirement plans.

State Democrats and public-worker unions have reacted with anger, charging that the governor is breaking a promise from 2010 to increase steadily the state's yearly payments to the beleaguered pension system and bring it back to financial stability after years of neglect by previous governors.

A follow-up law Christie signed in 2011 promised the higher payments in exchange for shifting more retirement costs to public workers, raising their retirement age to 65, and freezing their cost-of-living adjustments.

Two unions, the New Jersey Education Association and the Communications Workers of America, have said they will file a lawsuit challenging Christie's move.

The debate, which has taken hold of the Statehouse over the last month, found its way into the Investment Council today, even as members said it had no role in deciding how much money the pension fund gets each year.

Robert Grady, a venture capitalist at Cheyenne Capital and a close adviser to Christie, who chairs the Investment Council, said it was not up to him and the other members to decide how much money to pour into the pension fund.

"It will be less money into the fund," Grady said of Christie's plan. "What we do do is try to manage the investments as best we can." The council's role, he said, is "simply to maximize returns while minimizing risk — with whatever capital we're entrusted."

"We can't control what's being put into this fund," added another member, Charles Dolan.

Adam Liebtag, a member of the council representing the CWA, said it should still do more to warn Christie about the long-term dangers of his move. The Investment Council serves the same advisory role for the state that a financial planner or retirement adviser would for an individual, he said.

"The adviser should also go that next step and say, 'Look, the plan you came in with, I can't accomplish that plan ... because you're putting in $1 instead of $100,'" Liebtag said.

"This council should not be agnostic on the amount of the pension contribution. ... This is the investment plan we put together, and the state of New Jersey is not fulfilling its obligation."

Liebtag added that New Jersey has been seeing healthy returns on its pension investments lately and should try to reap as much as possible while the economic climate is still favorable.

From July 2013 through April 2014, the state had realized a 12.6 percent rate of return on its pension investments, according to the state Treasury Department.

Grady said the fund "has achieved outstanding returns." To get the economy going, he suggested, would take efforts to "keep the tax burden manageable and, if possible, lower."

Anthony Miskowski, an official with CWA Local 1033 in Trenton, was the only member of the public to speak, and he opposed Christie's plan. "The economic games with the lives of our members must stop here and now," he said. "Stop playing three-card monty with our retirement fund."

The legislative overhaul of the pension system was considered one of Christie's biggest achievements in Trenton — until the budget crisis came to light last month and Christie blew his own pension plans off track to solve it.

Veteran NJ State Police trooper alleges retaliation for refusal to back Christie's 2009 campaign

Veteran NJ State Police trooper alleges retaliation for refusal to back Christie's 2009 campaign
By Christopher Baxter/The Star-Ledger
on May 28, 2014

A veteran state trooper claims in a lawsuit that his exemplary career was derailed by two superiors because he refused to sign nominating petitions supporting Chris Christie’s first campaign for governor.

In the lawsuit, filed May 15 in state Superior Court in Mercer County, Detective Sgt. 1st Class John Pizzuro says he was approached by a colleague, Detective Sgt. 1st Class Ronald Hampton, in 2009 while working for the division’s Official Corruption Unit.

Hampton, while on official time, told Pizzuro that he was working for the campaign and had been asked to obtain petition signatures to get Christie on the ballot, and then presented a list that included the names of about 10 troopers, according to the lawsuit.

Pizzuro said he refused to sign and noted the request was against State Police regulations.

"Hampton again instructed (Pizzuro) to sign the petition stating that ‘you have to sign it if you want things to get better,’ " according to the lawsuit.

After again refusing to sign, Pizzuro claims Hampton called him a derogatory term and walked away.

Pizzuro alleges his rebuke of Hampton came back to haunt him last year, when Hampton was promoted to lieutenant and became his supervisor, and Pizzuro was subsequently denied the same rank on several occasions despite being first in line for the job.

An attorney for Pizzuro, George Daggett, declined to elaborate on the complaint, and spokesmen for the state Attorney General’s Office and State Police declined comment. Troopers are prohibited under regulation from commenting.

A spokesman for Christie’s 2009 campaign could not be reached for comment on what role, if any, Hampton had in the campaign.

The lawsuit is the latest filed against the State Police alleging its promotional system, one of the most subjective in the country, can be manipulated to reward friends and associates of supervisors and punish those who fall out of favor or speak out against wrongdoing...

This portion not available on this blog- click on lik below for full article.
...The lawsuit alleges Hampton’s actions "were in direct retaliation" for Pizzuro’s refusal to sign the nominating petitions for Christie in 2009, and that Hampton used his position to influence Guidetti and put a stop to Pizzuro’s career.

Pizzuro is seeking an unspecified amount of damages under the state’s whistleblower law.

Read full article here: http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/05/veteran_nj_state_police_trooper_alleges_retaliation_for_refusal_to_back_christies_2009_campaign.html#incart_river

This is a great example of why civil service should never be disbanded as Slovernor Christie desires. Civil Service exams and rules help keep cronyism and nepotism to a minimum (but cronyism and nepotism, as well as bully-ism, are a norm in Christie's government and his spoiled rich boy culture). This is also a good example of the Slovenor Christopher Christie Government and how its culture IS a culture of bullying and strong-arming to get its way. It is finally time to really cut the fat out of Trenton (no, a secret operation to band the fat-boy's belly will not suffice!).

Christie chooses potential big donors over public pensions

Governor ("Slovenor") Christopher Christie's attacks on police, firemen, teachers, and state workers pension systems are not out of necessity but are self-serving decisions to protect the donor class. Governor/Slovenor Christie is an enemy of the American worker class and only serves the interest of the mega-rich (like the men who lead the Rockefeller Corporation). Christopher Christie is a fat, greedy glutton and his obesity is a sign of his spiritual sloth! Read below what Sirota has to say:

Christie chooses potential big donors over public pensions
By David Sirota
The most troubling aspect of 2016 presidential candidate and Gov. Chris Christie's refusal this week to make necessary contributions to New Jersey's pension system was not the budget maneuver itself — it was that almost none of the debate surrounding the move contextualized what it was really about.

Christie depicted the maneuver as a matter of financial necessity, as if he had no other choice but to effectively use New Jersey retirees' money to balance the state's books.

With New Jersey under threat of another credit downgrade, Christie was certainly dinged a bit by the political press for not better managing his state's budget.

However, lost in the noise about whether or not the governor is a true fiscal conservative was any discussion of two choices his administration has made and are at the root of the budget crisis.

The first choice was Christie's decision to spend enormous amounts of New Jersey taxpayer money on lavish subsidies to corporations.

As the New York Times reported two years ago, "Christie has approved a record $1.57 billion in state tax breaks for dozens of New Jersey's largest companies."

As if that largesse wasn't enough, the Star-Ledger reported that in 2013 Christie signed legislation that "lifts limits on how much the state can give out in economic incentives to corporations and developers."

The second choice was the Christie administration's decision to invest so much of New Jersey's pension fund in high-risk, high-fee investments. As Pensions and Investments magazine just reported, New Jersey now ranks second in the nation for public pension investments in hedge funds.

In a radio interview, Christie recently bragged that this investment scheme delivered 12.9% returns last year. He didn't mention that number was well below the 16% returns the median public pension delivered, according to Businessweek.

Comparing the New Jersey returns with the median, pension consultant Chris Tobe said the gap represents $2.5 billion in returns New Jersey could have generated had it performed like the typical public pension.

Tobe estimates that $1.2 billion of that difference came from the fees paid on the hedge funds, private equity firms and other so-called "alternative investments."

With those figures in mind, let's return to Christie's pension machinations this week.

According to the Star-Ledger, Christie "said he plans to take $2.43 billion budgeted for the pension fund during this fiscal year and the next one to balance his budgets."

That $2.43 billion is less than the combined $1.5 billion Christie is spending on corporate subsidies and the $1.2 billion the Christie administration spent last year on investment fees.

In other words, context shows Christie isn't being forced to renege on the pension payment — he's choosing to spend money on corporate subsidies and investment fees rather than on those pension promises.

Why would he make such a choice, you ask? Simply follow the money.

Many of the corporate subsidies are going to companies that just so happen to be big donors to the Republican Governors Association, which Christie now chairs. Likewise, the pension investment fees enrich the Wall Street firms that typically bankroll presidential campaigns.

Together, the firms getting the New Jersey subsidies and the investment fees have far more political campaign cash at their disposal than the public workers whose retirements could be jeopardized by Christie's pension maneuver.

And so Christie is choosing to side with the bigger money.

As a purely political tactic in the age of the billion-dollar presidential campaign, Christie's move can certainly be seen as shrewd. But let's not pretend it was a matter of necessity — it was a self-serving decision to protect the donor class.

Sirota is a staff writer at PandoDaily and a best-selling author.
http://davidsirota.com/

Another Round of Broken Pension Promises

That fat f@#%&ing criminal needs to be locked in a very large cell! Cops arrest criminals and the criminal politicians are stealing from them! What a great big fat irony that is!

Another Round of Broken Pension Promises
by NJ State PBA President Anthony Wieners.

From the day Gov. Christie took office and broke his promise to police and firefighters that he would never reduce benefits for active or retired officers, we have been engaged in a never-ending effort to stop the revisionist history of blaming employees for the unfunded liability in the pension system.

The facts are clear that state and local governments went nearly a decade without making a full contribution into the State Pension System and nearly three full years passed without a penny of employer contributions being made. Unfunded liabilities exploded and, combined with a failing economy and pension investments, what was once an overfunded pension system soon became, in the governor’s words, “unsustainable.”
But sometimes the facts don’t get in the way of good politics, and the governor's mastery of storytelling has rewritten the state’s pension history. So when the pension and health benefit reform law was signed in 2011 and the champagne corks were popped in some circles around the state that public employees were finally put in their place, we were told to be thankful that our pensions were finally "saved," and that the increased employee contributions would only help restore fiscal soundness to the pension fund.Retired cops in their 70s, 80s and 90s who have small pensions and needed a COLA to survive, were told by the governor and others that these reforms were leading to a day around the corner when COLA would be given back to them. Active officers who saw their pension contributions jump to 10 percent and their healthcare contributions increase to as much as 33 percent of an uncontrollable premium were told their increased payments were needed to pay off the unfunded liability in THEIR pension system.

So after three years and two rounds of pension cuts, New Jersey law enforcement officers started making increased payments. But as with everything else that has been said about pension reform in New Jersey, the demand that increased employee payments were required immediately to “save their pensions” was a half truth designed to mislead the public. On Oct. 16, 2013, the governor announced that because of the pension changes, local governments could skip making another $116 million in payments to the pension system. That was on top of $267 million in “savings” the law yielded after its passage. So in the end, the same local governments that skipped billions in pension payments that created the unfunded liability in the pension system that became “unsustainable” are now being rewarded with $383 million in cuts to their current pension obligations.

Now let's be clear. I don't oppose using lower pension liabilities to lessen the impact on property tax payers. The governor and his allies have done their best to make this an us-versus-them debate. But I am a taxpayer, too. A solvent pension system is what I was promised and I am ready to pay my fair share because it matters a lot more to me than to the average citizen whether my pension is around for my retirement. But this kickback to local government reeks of hypocrisy and it rewards the same politicians who created the crisis in the first place.

Look at it as you would your mortgage and were behind on your payments and the interest was piling on. If you suddenly received a big cash payment wouldn’t you want to pay down your debt on the house or would you use that money to buy something unrelated?  I would like to think you would pay off your house debt to make sure you don't lose it.

That is the point the state is missing here. They have demanded that our senior citizen retirees lose their COLA on their pension, have increased our contribution rate to the highest in the state at 10 percent and have made structural changes to lower their costs. Wouldn't it make more sense financially and out of fundamental honesty to then take those “savings” and use them to pay down more of the unfunded liability faster? Wasn’t the point of all these changes to lower “unsustainable” pension liability so that employee pensions would be secured for the future?

Any cop will tell you that all they are looking for when they are working is honesty. In this case, we are all wondering where the honesty is in using reduced pension costs to reward state and local government failure to fund their past obligations. Where is the honesty for an older retired officer who was promised these savings would bring his COLA back quickly but then told by the State that COLA won’t be restored until 2026? Where is the honesty for a cop who is now paying $20,000 more for pension and health benefit costs only to see health care premiums continue to rise, politically connected health care brokers continue to get rich and additional pension contributions go to a government that nearly bankrupted his retirement rather than toward paying down pension debt as we were told had to be done immediately?

When cops are made out to be the enemy of the people to advance a political agenda, we can see it for what it is. But when we are called on to bail out the government for their abuses that caused record losses in our pension and then watch that money leave the pension system we can’t help but feel disgust and disappointment we didn’t think possible after the past three years.

Christie scoops out pension fund as pal double dipper Joe D looks on

Chris Christie the fat sloppy governor is a hypocrite!

Christie scoops out pension fund as pal double dipper Joe D looks on
By Brian Donohue/The Star-Ledger
on May 21, 2014

You won’t believe what I saw at the press conference where Gov. Chris Christie announced he was skipping $2.43 billion in payments to the state’s teetering pension system yesterday: an elephant.

No, this isn’t another dopey joke about the governor’s weight (which you’ll never catch me making, by the way). But there was, to revert to a cliche, an elephant in the room, standing in a dark suit behind a row of television cameras: Democratic Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo.

Joe D is perhaps the highest profile face for the one of the most infuriating problems plaguing New Jersey’s pension system - double dipping politicians and their cronies - it is Joe D. Under a loophole in the state pension laws, DiVincenzo was able to retire from his job in 2010 and begin collecting his $5,700 a month pension - while still working in the same job. Incredible.

DiVincenzo, largely because of his considerable political power and cross-party bro hug alliance with Christie, has become the poster boy for double dipping. Only at the statehouse, where hypocrisy is served up like Pork Roll at the local diner, could he walk into a press conference highlighting the state’s pension crisis and not even raise an eyebrow. (Watch the video of my post press conference chat with Joe D above).

To be fair, Joe D is far from alone.

The state legislature is full of double dippers. Sheriffs do it. Retired state troopers do it.

The stellar reporting by the blog New Jersey Watchdog found Christie himself has hired 19 double dippers, including the guy who’s job it is to sort out the state’s deepening financial mess: Louis Goetting, Christie’s deputy chief of staff, who makes $140,000 in salary plus $88,860 in pension as a retired state employee.

In reality, it’s hard to say whether closing the loopholes would have a huge effect on the financial stability of the pension system.

But ending double dipping would certainly eliminate a chief talking point of the unions who have opposed pension reform, giving lawmakers more leverage when they ask for concessions.

And, frankly, it would make them look less like scoundrels with zero credibility - if that’s something they even care about.

See, in all the debate over pension reform, the state has ignored the central precept: pensions are for people who are no longer working.

Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) has introduced a bill that would codify that bit of common sense. But it’s been stuck since 2011 in the Senate’s State Government Committee - a panel chaired by a double dipper himself, Sen. Jim Whelan, D-Northfield, who annually collects a $35,160 state pension, $71,564 as a full-time Atlantic City school teacher and $49,000 as a legislator, according to NJ Watchdog.

And so Joe D and the others continues to rake it in. I don’t blame him or any of the other double dippers personally. The practice is legal and I’d probably do the same thing in their shoes.

But the politicians who have let this happen should be embarrassed. Or at least sensitive enough not to show up at a press conference at which teachers and lower paid public employees are learning their pension fund is being plundered yet again.

When I turned and saw Joe D standing behind the row of video cameras a brief hysterical fantasy came over me.

Yes, for a moment I thought Joe D was there as a prop for an announcement by Christie that he was declaring war on double dipping and other pension abuses. Perhaps, I thought for a millisecond, he’s going to get up and say he’s going to stop taking pension payments and wait until he’s actually retired and call for others to join him in making a sacrifice for the greater good.

No luck. It seems DiVincenzo had only showed up early for a meeting with the governor and Newark mayor-elect Ras Baraka and had decided to peek into the presser to see if the county was facing any funding cuts due to the state budget gap.

But there was Christie at the podium, announcing the pension money will be used instead to fill an unexpected budget gap. He hinted at an upcoming push for further pension reforms. We'll have to wait and see whether that includes going after the elephants in suits and ties.

Christie's pension payment reduction plan sparks lawsuit from CWA

The fat gluttenous governor is not a man of his word!

Christie's pension payment reduction plan sparks lawsuit from CWA

By Salvador Rizzo/The Star-Ledger
on May 21, 2014

TRENTON — Another prominent labor union, the Communications Workers of America, says it will file a lawsuit in an effort to stop Gov. Chris Christie's plans to grab $2.43 billion meant for the pension system to balance the state budget.

The announcement from the CWA today comes a day after the largest public-worker union in the state, the New Jersey Education Association, said it would challenge Christie's plans in court. The CWA is the largest state workers union.

The Republican governor, in a stunning about-face, announced Tuesday that he would reduce two key payments meant to shore up New Jersey's strained pension system, grabbing a total of $2.43 billion to cover unexpected revenue shortfalls in his budgets.

For Christie, the move means he is walking away from a major pension overhaul he signed in his first term to restore the pension system's financial health over approximately 30 years. But the governor said he had few other choices: He won't raise taxes, he won't take funds from schools and health care programs, and there is next to nothing left to cut in state spending.

“Governor Christie is not only breaking his word, but he’s also breaking the law in failing to make these pension payments,” said Hetty Rosenstein, state director of the CWA. “Put aside how Christie’s actions are immoral. If the pension payments are not made, the plan will go bankrupt. Retirees and active workers will spend their retirement in poverty through no fault of their own. For these reasons, and more, we are taking the governor to court. And we will be mobilizing our members and allies in protest of Christie’s outrageous, illegal actions.”

The pension overhaul from Christie's first term shifted more costs to public workers, raised their retirement age to 65, and froze yearly cost-of-living adjustments. In exchange, Christie and lawmakers agreed to make bigger payments each year to the pension fund to repair the financial damage after years of governors who paid nothing at all.

Now, reducing those payments would increase the financial pressure on the pension system, which already faces $52 billion in unfunded liabilities, and would erase some of the progress Christie and Democratic lawmakers made after they overhauled the pension system in 2011.

Public worker unions won a contract provision, under that 2011 law, to challenge any delays or reductions to the pension payments in state Superior Court.

Christie said he would take nearly $900 million through an executive order he signed Tuesday. The other $1.5 billion would be taken next year -- if the Democratic-controlled Legislature approves of the governor's plan.

State Democrats criticized Christie on Tuesday, blaming him for a pattern of missed revenue projections that have brought years of budget pain for the state and urging him to sign a millionaires' tax to raise more money. (Christie has vetoed the tax three times and vowed to do so again.)

The three major Wall Street credit-rating agencies have downgraded the state's debt this year, based partly on those same revenue concerns.

Christie said Tuesday that he wasn't worried about credit downgrades or lawsuits from unions. The state has made untenable commitments to public workers' benefits, he said, and needs to revise them. Christie said he would present a new plan next month to tackle those long-term costs