PEN BEN AGAIN —Your retirement benefits under fire!!
It never ends….
First it was the threat of a constitutional amendment to require voter approval for state spending on things like construction of schools, roads, and bridges.
Then, a plan got floated for “countywide” collective bargaining.
Last week, the tuition tax credit/voucher bill passed the first hurdle in the Senate.
And now, NJEA is hearing rumblings from the Statehouse that we will likely be facing new attacks on public employee retirement benefits.
During Gov. Corzine’s town hall meetings on his toll hike plan, many speakers asked the Governor to make deeper cuts in budget and programs. And some policymakers are running with that.
A recent Star Ledger article says legislators are looking for ways to breathe life back into some proposals that never moved out of the Special Legislative Session.
We’ve got the scoop and here’s their plan:
Eliminating pension credit for part-time employees;
Increasing the salary threshold for PERS/TPAF eligibility to $15,000;
Changing the pension formula from N/55 back to N/60; and
Raising the retirement age from 60 to 62.
If that’s not enough, they’re also looking to put an end to:
Employer-sponsored health benefits for part-time public employees; and
Defined benefit retirement plans for all new hires.
Although most of these changes would impact new hires, we know that cuts in benefits for any of our members ultimately hurt us all. For one thing, tiering benefits creates morale problems and a hostile work environment.
What else would you expect when workers get different levels of compensation and benefits for doing the same work?
Besides that, these attacks come out of misplaced blame. There’s no doubt that New Jersey is facing a serious fiscal crisis. But we continued to uphold our end of the bargain by making our payments into the pension system. It’s not our fault that the State took a decade-long “pension holiday” from paying its fair share and is now paying the price for its own bad judgment!
Legislation is being drafted, and the Senate will move quickly when it is introduced.
That’s why we NEED you to contact members of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, Senate President Dick Codey, and your local legislators. Send an email now! Go to NJEA's Cyberlobbying site, click “Take Action” under “PEN BEN AGAIN!” and follow the instructions.
And come to NJEA lobby days in Trenton and SPEAK OUT! We keep adding more days. Find one that works for you and go to town!
