So...What's wrong with this?

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From press of A.C.


So just do it.

Seize the momentum provided by a new governor and by unusual bipartisan support for pension reform - and get it done. Now. Before you lose your will.

That's our advice for state lawmakers.

A package of four bills has been introduced in the state Senate to fix New Jersey's out-of-control - and drastically underfunded - pension system. Many of the proposed changes are based on recommendations that came out of the Legislature's 2006 special session on lowering property taxes - recommendations that were allowed to die because of Gov. Jon S. Corzine's and other Democrats' coziness with public-employee unions.

Now, however, Republican Gov. Chris Christie is calling for pension reform; state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, Salem, is solidly behind the proposals; and each of the four reform bills already has at least 23 co-sponsors - enough to ensure passage in the state Senate.

So do it. Now.

The bills would limit pension eligibility to full-time workers, require holders of multiple public jobs to base their pensions on one job only, calculate pensions based on the five highest-paying years instead of three, and change a pension formula that granted workers a 9 percent pension increase in 2001.

The bills would also apply a $15,000 cap on unused sick time at all levels of government and require all public workers to contribute 1.5 percent of their salaries toward their health coverage. Finally, one measure would constitutionally require the state to fully fund the state pension systems each year.

Leaders of the state's public-employee unions, as usual, painted the reforms as an attack on government and school workers. But every one of these changes - except the 1.5 percent health care contribution - would apply only to new hires. Current workers would have to make the new 1.5 percent contribution after their current contracts expire.

So no current public workers are being attacked in any significant way. If the reforms are approved, there would be a new pension system in place for people considering taking new state, county, municipal and school jobs. They would have every opportunity to decide whether the salary and benefit package was something they wanted or not. There is nothing unfair about that. All they have to do is decide not to take the jobs if they don't want them.

As Christie told a joint session of the Legislature on Thursday, New Jersey is in a deep, deep financial hole. These proposed pension reforms are systemic changes that will vastly reduce the pension burden on state taxpayers in coming decades.

True, they won't do anything to fix the state's immediate financial problems, but they are the kind of long-term fix that New Jersey desperately needs and that the Legislature has traditionally avoided.

Posted in EDITORIALS on Sunday, February 14, 2010 2:22 am