June 30, 2015
By LaborPress
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie used his veto power June 26 to cut $1.8 billion in payments to the state’s chronically underfunded pension system from the state’s budget for fiscal 2016. He slashed payments appropriated by the legislature by more than half, from $3.1 billion to $1.3 billion, and also vetoed $1.1 billion in tax increases on the affluent and corporations that had been intended to cover the pension payments.
Actuaries estimate that the funds need almost $4 billion a year in order to stay solvent. "For the third budget year in a row, the governor is breaking his promise by failing to make the pension payment required under the law he signed in 2010…. even though state revenues are rising," state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said in a statement. “No one should be surprised today,” said Hetty Rosenstein, state director of the Communications Workers of America. "Whenever given a choice, Chris Christie stands squarely with millionaires and corporations over working people every single time." Read more
