Teachers union: Christie meets pension requirement or we sue
By Wendell Steinhauer
Our governor — a former federal prosecutor — intends to break the law.
And it’s a law he bragged about signing.
First, some history. In 2009, then-candidate Chris Christie told New Jersey teachers in an “open letter” that “I will protect your pensions. Nothing about your pension is going to change when I am governor.”
Barely 18 months later, Gov. Christie signed Chapter 78 of the Acts of 2011, making deep cuts in the pensions of current and future retirees, raising the teacher retirement age to 65, and increasing teachers’ annual personal pension contributions by 36 percent.
So much for promises.
In return, however, Chapter 78 required the state to begin a seven-year schedule of increasing payments into the state pension funds (from one-seventh of the actuarially required contribution in the first year to the full contribution in 2018).
Christie immediately touted this bipartisan legislation as a centerpiece of his re-election campaign.
We all agree New Jersey’s public employee pension funds are terribly underfunded, and we know why. Since 1996, while the state contributed only $2.3 billion into their pension fund, teachers contributed more than $9 billion. For 10 years — 1996-2005 — the state didn’t contribute one penny. That failure of governors and legislators from both parties caused the pension funds’ unfunded liability — money owed to future retirees — to explode to $54 billion.
That’s why, for teachers and other public employees, Chapter 78’s higher contributions were a bitter pill to swallow. Pensions are not some gift or free “benefit”; they are deferred compensation. Those pension funds contain billions of their hard-earned dollars, and the health of the pension system is their retirement lifeline.
Pensions are not some gift or free “benefit”; they are deferred compensation.
Teachers took some solace when Christie boasted that he saved their pensions — provided he made his legally required contributions. But after two years of payments, Christie says he can afford to pay only $696 million of this year’s $1.7 billion payment — and only $681 million of next year’s $2.5 billion payment.
State budgets are about choices, and for Christie, new revenue is off the table. He stubbornly refuses to institute the millionaires’ tax on the wealthy, who, unlike the sinking middle class, have done quite well in recent years. Instead of investing in middle-class priorities, he has given away $2.1 billion in corporate tax credits that yielded few new jobs. My personal favorite: $261 million to the now-bankrupt Revel Casino in Atlantic City.
Maybe that’s why New Jersey ranks 48th among the 50 states in private-sector job growth since 2010.
If Christie fails to make the full required pension contribution, the New Jersey Education Association will sue him for violating Chapter 78, which says that contribution is a contractual right of all members of the pension funds. The law specifically says each member has the right to sue the state in this instance — as do the various boards of trustees of those funds.
Christie’s threat isn’t just illegal; it’s cruel. Three-quarters of school employees are women, many of them single heads of households. They haven’t become wealthy serving in public education, and those who retired are living on modest pensions, after devoting their working lives to educating New Jersey’s children.
In 1919, NJEA’s first female president, Elizabeth Allen, was horrified to learn that female teachers — most of them unmarried — often retired in abject poverty. Allen was proud to see legislation signed into law creating the Teachers’ Pension and Annuity Fund, which made membership in the fund mandatory for teachers — and which required the state to make annual contributions.
Now, Christie is threatening to turn back the clock on this generation of school employees by starving the funds and endangering their pensions.
For a century, New Jersey educators have paid every penny required into the pension fund. In 2011, Christie signed a law requiring the state to do the same, and now he is breaking it. That’s why NJEA will sue him, if that’s what it takes to allow school employees to retire with dignity and make him live up to his legal obligations.
Wendell Steinhauer is president of the 200,000-member New Jersey Education Association.
Monday, June 9, 2014
UPDATED: Eleven more unions sue Christie over pension plan
UPDATED: Eleven more unions sue Christie over pension plan
By Salvador Rizzo/The Star-Ledger
on June 09, 2014
UPDATE, 2:35 p.m.: Six more unions have filed a separate lawsuit against Gov. Chris Christie's pension plan. They are the Communications Workers of America, the Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey, the American Federation of Teachers, the Fraternal Order of Police, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, and the Service Employees International Union. A hearing on all the lawsuits will be held June 25 in state Superior Court in Trenton, union leaders said today.
TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie’s plan to take $2.4 billion meant for the pension system violates the state and federal constitutions, according to a lawsuit brought by a group of public-worker unions and individuals.
The largest teachers union in the state, the New Jersey Education Association, said today it has filed a lawsuit against Christie as he tries to grab more than $2.4 billion meant for the state’s pension system to balance his struggling budgets over two years.
Grabbing those funds would show a “flagrant disregard” for pension-reform laws Christie himself signed in his first term, the lawsuit states, and would violate the constitution and the rights of hundreds of thousands of public workers in New Jersey.
Workers began to pay more for their retirement and medical benefits in 2011, and in exchange, they won stronger contracts with the right to bigger payments every year by the state into their troubled retirement fund. Christie is now breaking his word, the unions charge, while workers continue to pay the higher rates for their benefits.
Four other unions — the State Policemen’s Benevolent Association, the Firefighters’ Mutual Benevolent Association, AFSCME and the AFL-CIO — are also parties in the lawsuit, along with 10 individual public workers.
“Everyone in New Jersey is subject to the laws of New Jersey, including Governor Christie,” said Wendell Steinhauer, NJEA president. “Our lawsuit seeks to hold him accountable to follow the law that he signed in 2011.”
It is the second legal challenge to Christie’s pension plan, which the governor announced last month as an emergency fix to a $2.7 billion revenue shortfall that came to light in April. Christie said he would rather cut pension payments than raise taxes or reduce spending for schools or hospitals — and that New Jersey can no longer afford the benefits it pays to public workers.
"Let them go to court and we’ll see what happens," Christie said of the unions at a news conference last month. "But nervous and intimidated? No, no, I’m not all that concerned, and what the people of the state need to understand ... is that we cannot afford this system."
Ultimately, Christie said, the state constitution requires a balanced budget every year.
In a sign of the pressure building in Trenton over Christie’s plan, unions for New Jersey State Police troopers filed a similar lawsuit last week. Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson has agreed to hear both lawsuits, with a ruling expected before the June 30 budget deadline, the unions said.
After decades of New Jersey governors who neglected to make full payments into the pension system, saddling it with long-term debt, Christie signed laws in his first term that promised higher payments each year until 2018. Public workers also began to pay more for their health and retirement benefits, their retirement age rose to 65, and their yearly cost-of-living adjustments were frozen.
Combined, Christie said, the changes put New Jersey’s pension fund on a 30-year path to financial stability. But now, if Christie cuts the pension contributions this year and next — from a combined $3.8 billion to $1.38 billion — his plans for pension reform could end up in tatters.
The unions argue that Christie cannot pull out of the bargain now because it would violate the contractual rights that hundreds of thousands of public employees in New Jersey won in 2011 after they began to pay more for their benefits. Under the state and federal constitutions, New Jersey cannot break its own contracts, the lawsuit says.
The plan could also break the pension system, the unions argue.
NJEA.jpg
"The state has a viable path to pension solvency, but only if Governor Christie lives up to his obligations," said NJEA President Wendell Steinhauer.
Saed Hindash/The Star-Ledger
“If contributions are not made in any given year, and for any significant period of time, the loss of the contributions … dramatically increases the amount of future contribution necessary each year, until ultimately reaching a point at which the system can no longer pay benefits,” the lawsuit warns.
“If the governor’s actions, both immediate and future, are permitted to stand, the systems will become insolvent within a few years: The pension as an actuarial reserve system will collapse.”
New Jersey’s pension system is currently facing nearly $47 billion in unfunded liabilities, according to Standard & Poor’s, which has threatened to downgrade the state’s credit rating because of Christie’s pension plan. The more money that gets poured into the pension fund every year, the quicker it can pay down its built-up liability.
Yearly cost-of-living adjustments were frozen for retirees under the 2011 pension law. Under the terms of that law, the COLA benefits would not come back until the pension system is 80 percent funded. Skipping pension payments means the COLAs will be frozen for an even longer period of time, the unions argue.
“More than 500,000 active members of New Jersey’s public pension systems have been making larger pension contributions out of every paycheck while being promised reduced benefits in retirement," Steinhauer said.
"Nearly 300,000 retirees have seen their promised cost of living adjustments frozen as well. They did not get to choose whether to comply with the law and we will not allow Governor Christie to treat his obligations under the very same law as optional."
By Salvador Rizzo/The Star-Ledger
on June 09, 2014
UPDATE, 2:35 p.m.: Six more unions have filed a separate lawsuit against Gov. Chris Christie's pension plan. They are the Communications Workers of America, the Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey, the American Federation of Teachers, the Fraternal Order of Police, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, and the Service Employees International Union. A hearing on all the lawsuits will be held June 25 in state Superior Court in Trenton, union leaders said today.
TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie’s plan to take $2.4 billion meant for the pension system violates the state and federal constitutions, according to a lawsuit brought by a group of public-worker unions and individuals.
The largest teachers union in the state, the New Jersey Education Association, said today it has filed a lawsuit against Christie as he tries to grab more than $2.4 billion meant for the state’s pension system to balance his struggling budgets over two years.
Grabbing those funds would show a “flagrant disregard” for pension-reform laws Christie himself signed in his first term, the lawsuit states, and would violate the constitution and the rights of hundreds of thousands of public workers in New Jersey.
Workers began to pay more for their retirement and medical benefits in 2011, and in exchange, they won stronger contracts with the right to bigger payments every year by the state into their troubled retirement fund. Christie is now breaking his word, the unions charge, while workers continue to pay the higher rates for their benefits.
Four other unions — the State Policemen’s Benevolent Association, the Firefighters’ Mutual Benevolent Association, AFSCME and the AFL-CIO — are also parties in the lawsuit, along with 10 individual public workers.
“Everyone in New Jersey is subject to the laws of New Jersey, including Governor Christie,” said Wendell Steinhauer, NJEA president. “Our lawsuit seeks to hold him accountable to follow the law that he signed in 2011.”
It is the second legal challenge to Christie’s pension plan, which the governor announced last month as an emergency fix to a $2.7 billion revenue shortfall that came to light in April. Christie said he would rather cut pension payments than raise taxes or reduce spending for schools or hospitals — and that New Jersey can no longer afford the benefits it pays to public workers.
"Let them go to court and we’ll see what happens," Christie said of the unions at a news conference last month. "But nervous and intimidated? No, no, I’m not all that concerned, and what the people of the state need to understand ... is that we cannot afford this system."
Ultimately, Christie said, the state constitution requires a balanced budget every year.
In a sign of the pressure building in Trenton over Christie’s plan, unions for New Jersey State Police troopers filed a similar lawsuit last week. Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson has agreed to hear both lawsuits, with a ruling expected before the June 30 budget deadline, the unions said.
After decades of New Jersey governors who neglected to make full payments into the pension system, saddling it with long-term debt, Christie signed laws in his first term that promised higher payments each year until 2018. Public workers also began to pay more for their health and retirement benefits, their retirement age rose to 65, and their yearly cost-of-living adjustments were frozen.
Combined, Christie said, the changes put New Jersey’s pension fund on a 30-year path to financial stability. But now, if Christie cuts the pension contributions this year and next — from a combined $3.8 billion to $1.38 billion — his plans for pension reform could end up in tatters.
The unions argue that Christie cannot pull out of the bargain now because it would violate the contractual rights that hundreds of thousands of public employees in New Jersey won in 2011 after they began to pay more for their benefits. Under the state and federal constitutions, New Jersey cannot break its own contracts, the lawsuit says.
The plan could also break the pension system, the unions argue.
NJEA.jpg
"The state has a viable path to pension solvency, but only if Governor Christie lives up to his obligations," said NJEA President Wendell Steinhauer.
Saed Hindash/The Star-Ledger
“If contributions are not made in any given year, and for any significant period of time, the loss of the contributions … dramatically increases the amount of future contribution necessary each year, until ultimately reaching a point at which the system can no longer pay benefits,” the lawsuit warns.
“If the governor’s actions, both immediate and future, are permitted to stand, the systems will become insolvent within a few years: The pension as an actuarial reserve system will collapse.”
New Jersey’s pension system is currently facing nearly $47 billion in unfunded liabilities, according to Standard & Poor’s, which has threatened to downgrade the state’s credit rating because of Christie’s pension plan. The more money that gets poured into the pension fund every year, the quicker it can pay down its built-up liability.
Yearly cost-of-living adjustments were frozen for retirees under the 2011 pension law. Under the terms of that law, the COLA benefits would not come back until the pension system is 80 percent funded. Skipping pension payments means the COLAs will be frozen for an even longer period of time, the unions argue.
“More than 500,000 active members of New Jersey’s public pension systems have been making larger pension contributions out of every paycheck while being promised reduced benefits in retirement," Steinhauer said.
"Nearly 300,000 retirees have seen their promised cost of living adjustments frozen as well. They did not get to choose whether to comply with the law and we will not allow Governor Christie to treat his obligations under the very same law as optional."
Chris Christie's record on civil liberties blasted in ACLU report card
Chris Christie's record on civil liberties blasted in ACLU report card
By Brent Johnson/The Star-Ledger
on June 09, 2014
Gov. Chris Christie deserves only a D+ grade for the way his administration has handled citizens’ rights during his first term, according to a report card released today by the New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The report, which grades Christie in 12 categories, slams the Republican governor for his record on same-sex marriage, government transparency, the war on drugs and judicial independence.
It also accuses Christie — a potential 2016 presidential candidate — of frequently making sweeping statements in support of civil liberties but rarely following through.
"His overall record on civil rights have been a poor one, ranging from mediocre to failing," said Udi Ofer, the ACLU’s executive director in New Jersey. "No question, some of his most frustrating moments are the times he fails to back up bold words with substantive actions."
Christie’s office dismissed the report, calling the ACLU — a non-profit organization that vows to protect the rights of U.S. citizens — biased.
"I don’t know, call me crazy, but does anyone think the ACLU could fairly assess anything we do that doesn’t fit squarely into its agenda?" said Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the governor.
Julian Zelizer, a political science professor at Princeton University, said the group’s criticisms reflect the "very tough task" Christie faces: being a Republican governor in a heavily Democratic state while trying to garner enough support from GOP voters to run for president.
"He can’t align too much with the national Republican Party because he would lose the one asset he has," Zelizer said. "He is a more moderate Republican on paper, and he does not look like a Southern Republican. But at the same time, he does want to remind the Republican Party nationally that he isn’t a liberal."
Thus, Zelizer said, Christie finds "ways to send that signal" — like opposing same-sex marriage and the legalization of marijuana.
The report gives Christie a D grade on gay and transgendered rights. The ACLU commended him for signing the country’s toughest anti-bullying law in 2012 and for speaking out against homophobic slurs used by former Rutgers University men’s basketball coach Mike Rice in practice.
But the group slammed Christie for vowing to fight a judge’s ruling last year that New Jersey must begin allowing gay weddings. Ofer noted that the governor stopped "only when it was clear he would lose."
The report gave Christie an "F" in four categories: separation of church and state, transparency, separation of powers, and economic justice.
Ofer singled out the governor’s stance on judicial independence as being "consistently bad." Christie and Democrats in the state Legislature have fought over judicial nominees. In 2010, Christie declined to nominate Justice John Wallace Jr. to lifetime tenure on the state Supreme Court. He did the same with Justice Helen Hoens last year, saying he feared Democrats would not have confirmed her.
Last month, Christie cut a deal with state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) to nominate Chief Justice Stuart Rabner for lifetime tenure, but Ofer said even that process took too long.
"Historically, New Jersey has been perceived as being a strong example of judicial independence," Ofer said. "Governor Christie has tried to do everything in his power to ruin that."
Christie received high marks in two categories: a B for freedom of religion and a B- for voting rights.
The group praised him for nominating Sohail Mohammed, a Muslim, to the state Superior Court in 2011, speaking out against critics of building a mosque at Ground Zero, and signing legislation in response to the New York Police Department’s secret surveillance of Muslims in New Jersey.
The report also notes that Christie’s administration "worked hard" to make sure people could vote in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
The governor received average grades in five categories: a C+ for immigrants’ rights; a C for women’s rights and criminal justice/drug policy; and a C- for both freedom of expression and privacy.
Ofer said Christie’s record on immigrant rights would have been higher if not for the Dream Act. The governor signed the bill last year, giving in-state tuition to the children of immigrants who came to this U.S. illegally, but he did so only after a provision allowing them to apply for financial aid was taken out.
As for drug policy, the report notes that Christie has stated in speeches that the nation's war on drugs has been a failed effort, and that he signed a bill in 2012 that allowed low-level drug offenders to complete a rehab program instead of receiving jail times.
But the group says Christie loses marks because he has "yet to implement a reliable medical marijuana program that serves the needs of most patients" and has stressed that marijuana would never be legalized while he is governor.
By Brent Johnson/The Star-Ledger
on June 09, 2014
Gov. Chris Christie deserves only a D+ grade for the way his administration has handled citizens’ rights during his first term, according to a report card released today by the New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The report, which grades Christie in 12 categories, slams the Republican governor for his record on same-sex marriage, government transparency, the war on drugs and judicial independence.
It also accuses Christie — a potential 2016 presidential candidate — of frequently making sweeping statements in support of civil liberties but rarely following through.
"His overall record on civil rights have been a poor one, ranging from mediocre to failing," said Udi Ofer, the ACLU’s executive director in New Jersey. "No question, some of his most frustrating moments are the times he fails to back up bold words with substantive actions."
Christie’s office dismissed the report, calling the ACLU — a non-profit organization that vows to protect the rights of U.S. citizens — biased.
"I don’t know, call me crazy, but does anyone think the ACLU could fairly assess anything we do that doesn’t fit squarely into its agenda?" said Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the governor.
Julian Zelizer, a political science professor at Princeton University, said the group’s criticisms reflect the "very tough task" Christie faces: being a Republican governor in a heavily Democratic state while trying to garner enough support from GOP voters to run for president.
"He can’t align too much with the national Republican Party because he would lose the one asset he has," Zelizer said. "He is a more moderate Republican on paper, and he does not look like a Southern Republican. But at the same time, he does want to remind the Republican Party nationally that he isn’t a liberal."
Thus, Zelizer said, Christie finds "ways to send that signal" — like opposing same-sex marriage and the legalization of marijuana.
The report gives Christie a D grade on gay and transgendered rights. The ACLU commended him for signing the country’s toughest anti-bullying law in 2012 and for speaking out against homophobic slurs used by former Rutgers University men’s basketball coach Mike Rice in practice.
But the group slammed Christie for vowing to fight a judge’s ruling last year that New Jersey must begin allowing gay weddings. Ofer noted that the governor stopped "only when it was clear he would lose."
The report gave Christie an "F" in four categories: separation of church and state, transparency, separation of powers, and economic justice.
Ofer singled out the governor’s stance on judicial independence as being "consistently bad." Christie and Democrats in the state Legislature have fought over judicial nominees. In 2010, Christie declined to nominate Justice John Wallace Jr. to lifetime tenure on the state Supreme Court. He did the same with Justice Helen Hoens last year, saying he feared Democrats would not have confirmed her.
Last month, Christie cut a deal with state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) to nominate Chief Justice Stuart Rabner for lifetime tenure, but Ofer said even that process took too long.
"Historically, New Jersey has been perceived as being a strong example of judicial independence," Ofer said. "Governor Christie has tried to do everything in his power to ruin that."
Christie received high marks in two categories: a B for freedom of religion and a B- for voting rights.
The group praised him for nominating Sohail Mohammed, a Muslim, to the state Superior Court in 2011, speaking out against critics of building a mosque at Ground Zero, and signing legislation in response to the New York Police Department’s secret surveillance of Muslims in New Jersey.
The report also notes that Christie’s administration "worked hard" to make sure people could vote in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
The governor received average grades in five categories: a C+ for immigrants’ rights; a C for women’s rights and criminal justice/drug policy; and a C- for both freedom of expression and privacy.
Ofer said Christie’s record on immigrant rights would have been higher if not for the Dream Act. The governor signed the bill last year, giving in-state tuition to the children of immigrants who came to this U.S. illegally, but he did so only after a provision allowing them to apply for financial aid was taken out.
As for drug policy, the report notes that Christie has stated in speeches that the nation's war on drugs has been a failed effort, and that he signed a bill in 2012 that allowed low-level drug offenders to complete a rehab program instead of receiving jail times.
But the group says Christie loses marks because he has "yet to implement a reliable medical marijuana program that serves the needs of most patients" and has stressed that marijuana would never be legalized while he is governor.
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