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

Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Fallon sing Chris Christie traffic jam song

Watch video here:
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2014/01/bruce_springsteen_on_jimmy_fallon_chris_christie_song.html#incart_river_default


They took to the stage dressed in "Born in the U.S.A." ensembles, wearing sleeveless denim button-downs, aviator sunglasses and red bandanas.

Tonight, Bruce Springsteen and Jimmy Fallon sang about none other than Gov. Chris Christie.

The song, called "Governor Chris Christie's Fort Lee, New Jersey Traffic Jam," riffed on the George Washington Bridge scandal involving Christie's staff and lane closures to the bridge in Fort Lee.

Set to the tune of "Born to Run," the song included lyrics like, "They shut down the tollbooths of glory 'cause we didn't endorse Chris Christie." Fallon imitated Springsteen's voice before Springsteen joined in, pounding the chorus.

"Man, I've gotta take a leak, but I can't," he sang. "I'm stuck in Governor Chris Christie's Fort Lee, New Jersey traffic jaaaaam."

"The press conference went on and on," the song continued, referencing Christie's recent "Bridgegate" apolology."It was longer than one of my own damn shows," Springsteen lamented.

 At one point, the duo addressed Christie: "You're killing the working man/who's stuck in Governor Christie's Fort Lee, New Jersey traffic jam."

"I gotta take a leak," Springsteen cried, towards the end of the performance. "I really gotta take a leak."

Springsteen and the E Street Band were scheduled guests on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," to promote their new album "High Hopes." Fallon opened his show monologue with a few jabs at Christie.

Over the years, Springsteen and Fallon have joined forces for two other song segments. The late-night host, known for his prowess in mimicking musicians, as seen on "Saturday Night Live," has traditionally portrayed Neil Young in jamming with The Boss on some unlikely songs — Willow Smith's "Whip My Hair" and LMFAO's "Sexy and I Know It."

While Fallon donned Young's hat and harmonica for the songs, Springsteen has dressed as ... himself ... in different period outfits. First, a cap meant to emulate his "Born to Run" look, then the "Born in the U.S.A." denim.

Christie's Springsteen fandom has been widely documented. As of 2012, he said he had been to 129 Springsteen concerts. He even tweeted his top 10 Springsteen songs. The No. 1 track: "Thunder Road."

Also that year, Gov. Christie appeared on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" and sang a duet of "Thunder Road" with the talk show host. ( In 2013, the governor also "slow-jammed the news" with Fallon to talk about the state's special senate election.) At his inaugural gala in 2010, Christie got up on stage, bopping his head as he cracked into "Glory Days," "Badlands" and "Born to Run."

But it was Christie who trumped Springsteen and other New Jersey figures to star in a "Stronger than the Storm" state tourism commercial, according to a report from Politico. The very same ad that's now under scrutiny.

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2014/01/bruce_springsteen_on_jimmy_fallon_chris_christie_song.html#incart_river_default

Christie IS a crook! Cut the fat from Trenton!

Gov Christie is sorry and didn't know anything? If you believe that I will sell you a bridge!

Fat Chance Now Chris! NJ Taxpayers Cannot Afford To Feed You and Your Fat Wife and Your Chubby Little (Soon To Be Obese Just Like You) Children!

Great Christie Headlines

Governor Christie is a big fat lier!

Christie's broken promise on pensions: by Tom Moran

on January 15, 2014 

Gov. Chris Christie caused Democratic heads to explode Tuesday when he suggested that the state should scale back payments into the pension funds.

It was a vague passage near the end of hisspeech, but this much is clear: Christie opened the door to breaking the fundamental promise behind the 2010 pension reform, still his landmark achievement.

The pension funds were in awful shape when Christie swore his oath in 2010, thanks mostly to a string of Democratic and Republican governors failing to make payments required to keep the funds healthy. So Christie and Senate President Steve Sweeney struck a grand bargain: We will reduce benefits to workers, and require both workers and the state to contribute more. We will balance these books.

The public workers did their part. They were required to make full payments immediately, and benefits were cut deeply. The worst of it was that current retirees lost their annual cost-of-living adjustments, in effect a small cut to their promised pensions each year.

Shorting the pension funds would put one of Christie's greatest achievements at risk.

That was rough stuff. But the grand bargain did at least require the state to make larger payments into the funds. Over a seven-year period, Christie promised, the state would ramp up to making its full payments.

Now the bill is coming due. The state is scheduled to invest $2.4 billion in the funds next year, a number that will climb to more than $5 billion by 2018.

That is a staggering amount of money in a budget that is today roughly $32 billion.

So Tuesday, the governor suggested punting on that obligation. It was vague, but his intention was clear. He noted that pension and debt costs will grow by a combined $1 billion next year.

"That's $1 billion we can't spend on education. That we can't invest in infrastructure improvement. That we can't use to put more cops on the street."

The lower payments would be accompanied by lower benefits for public workers. So naturally, their unions are going ballistic. And this time, Democrats say they will not yield. A deal is a deal.

With the din of Bridgegate sucking the oxygen out of everything in Trenton, this didn't get a lot of attention Tuesday. But just wait. This could easily be the biggest political fight of the year.

It's hard to imagine that Christie, in his weakened state, can pressure Democrats to yield on this.

But maybe that's not the point. Christie is probably thinking about 2016 again, and it can't hurt him on the primary trail to pick a fight with public worker union and Democrats. This could all be about scoring political points.

As for the merits of this, it is simply dastardly. The state's pension crisis arose not because workers got excessive benefits. They are in line with other states.

The problem is that Trenton shorted these funds, year after year. Is Christie suggesting we pick up those bad habits again, despite his promises? If so, he will be putting one of his greatest achievements at risk.