Dear @NJEA Members, This is Urgent!

Hey you. Yea, you, NJEA member. The one working those part time jobs to make it through the summer. The one who is fortunate enough to not have to work in the summer to make ends meet. The one dipping into your retirement funds to make it through the summer. The one who has no time to advocate because you're just trying to keep your head above water. I'm talking to you. 

You need to stop what you're doing right now and read this.

See that counter on the right side of this screen? That's counting down to D-Day: the day the NJ pension system runs dry. That's right, I said, 'dry' as in running out of money. That's 10.45 years. For everyone. E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E. Doesn't matter if you're a first year teacher or a 20 year retiree. There is no grandfather clause, no sliding scale. Nothing. Nada. Zippo. Say buh-bye to your future and hello to working til you drop.

If you don't know by now, the pension system has been grossly underfunded by the state for the past 20 years, even though we have been making our regularly scheduled payments (and then-some, thanks to Gov. Christie and Ch.78), and are now forced to work more years and get less in return. Our retired members are feeling the hit too because their cost of living adjustments have been frozen.

This situation is dire and it's not going to get any better if we sit back and do nothing.

It's that bad.

But that's not going to happen because we are a union, and unions work together. We stick together. We fight together. And we win together... and we are going to win this battle.

Right now approximately 300 specifically-designated NJEA Pension Fellows (myself included) are working hard to engage all 200,000 of us in the fight to save our pensions. 

Notice I didn't say, "engage the state legislature". I said, "engage all 200,000 of us". That's right, 300 of your fellow members cannot fix this problem alone, but 200,000 of us sure can.

We are working 5 days a week making member outreach phone calls and knocking on members' doors to inform and engage every single one of us to take action. In the first two days alone we made over 3800 phone calls and wrote countless postcards!

Right now the Assembly has approved the November ballot question to engrave funding the pension system into our state constitution. The Senate must also do so, but Senate President Steve Sweeney has yet to post the bill for a vote. If the vote doesn't happen by August 8, or if the vote fails in the Senate, there will be no ballot question, and we go back to square one... with that clock still ticking down to zero.

So, here are six easy things you can do right now:

1. Go do VoteNJPension and sign up to become a Pension Activist. This is different from the Pension 'Fellows'. An activist is a voluntary position. You will receive text messages with updates and actions such as contacting legislators, and engaging friends and family to vote.
2. Contact your State Senator—preferably today—and urge him or her to push Sen. Sweeney to post SCR-2 for a vote, and tell them you want them to vote Yes on it.
3. Contact Sen. Sweeney directly and tell him to post SCR-2. His contact info: (856) 251-9801 or (856) 339-0808; SenSweeney@njleg.org. Don't worry, you won't get him on the phone. You will either get an answering machine or an aide who will take your information.
4. Get informed. Read through What You Need To Know so that you can give factual information to those who may have questions or who think the pension system isn't worth saving.
5. Contact one of the field offices we have set up for the summer and volunteer. Even if none of these are near you, there are many opportunities to volunteer your time in your community:
   
   NJEA Trenton Headquarters
   180 W. State St.
   Trenton
   609-599-4561
   
   NJEA Higher Education Office
   Golden Crest Corporate Center
   2279 State Highway 33, Suite 508
   Hamilton Square
   609-689-9580
   
   NJEA Region 11/12 Office
   Raritan Plaza II
   91 Fieldcrest Ave, Suite A3
   Edison
   732-287-4700
   
   Gloucester Co. Education Association
   190 N. Evergreen Ave, Suite 108
   Woodbury
   856-853-6673
   
   NJEA Stanhope Office
   23 Route 206
   Stanhope
   973-347-5717
   
   NJEA Region 3 Office
   1020 Laurel Oak Rd.
   Voorhees
   856-782-1225
6. Make sure every member of your family who is able to do so is registered to vote. This website lets you do it online.

Friends, there really is no other way to say this. We can't sugar coat it or push it off on someone else. We need every single one of us taking action. Can you imagine Sen. Sweeney's office receiving 200,000 phone calls? He can't say No to that.

So please, make a commitment today to do your part. We all have worked too hard to simply let our pensions dissolve into thin air. And I think it's pretty safe to say that there aren't too many of us who can survive retirement without them. I know I can't.

Let's do this!

#TeamTrenton rocking the vote!

Fixing NJ's pension crisis: Do. Or do not. There is no try.

Last week dozens of NJEA members rallied outside the state house to protest the State Supreme Court's ruling and Gov. Christie's refusal to fully fund the pension system. The rally/lobby day (there are two more next week) was part of NJEA's efforts to push the legislature to do something—anything—to stave off impending disaster when the fund runs dry in 12 years.

When the NJEA members drowned out the voice of Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon, who was addressing a small group of Americans for Prosperity counter protesters, he responded with this:

"Do you want to yell at me or do you want to have a discussion? Because quite frankly, if we're just going to yell, we're not going to get anywhere."
...
“This is the type of ignorance and screaming that gets us nowhere. … You have to make a real plan that’s sustainable so, long term, we can take care of our dedicated workers, make sure that the pensions are there, make sure that in two or three or five years from now, it doesn’t fall apart. Screaming, ‘just make the payment,’ doesn’t get me $2 billion.” (emphasis mine)

Look, I get it, no one wants an angry mob screaming and yelling at them, and when people are pushed, they kinda tend to push back. I'm not attacking Asm. O'Scanlon. I have never met him, nor do I have extensive knowledge of his voting record and/or history with public employee unions. From his Twitter posts (more below), he seems like a reasonable guy who is willing to communicate with constituents in an open forum. His altercation with NJEA members is but a snapshot in the larger pension crisis picture. 

That said, we are not ignorant. Frustrated? Yes. Angry? You betcha! But we are not ignorant. We know full well what's going on right now and we're not taking it sitting down. There was a "real", "sustainable", "long-term plan" signed into law with bipartisan support that was supposed to fix all this. As the Star Ledger reported last week,

Christie called [it] 'a model for America' that would save taxpayers $120 billion over 30 years. 

Except when it didn't. Ooops. One minor detail was overlooked: where was that money going to come from? Not from corporations. They've gotten huge tax breaks. Not from the super wealthy. Ditto on those breaks. Not from investments in infrastructure and job creation. Christie put the kibosh on those post haste. Did anybody in Gov. Christie's world ever have a real, legitimate plan to generate that kind of additional revenue? Me thinks not.

It's really hard for the 800,000 people in the pension system to stay calm right now when, for the past 20 years the legislature did nothing as one governor after another raided the fund. Then Candidate Christie came along and said this:

... then, Gov. Christie did this:

The symbolic 'f-you' is to all state workers, but NJEA members occupy a special place in his heart

Then, he did this (you can jump to the numbers below the video):

• $5.4 billion in corporate subsidies 
• $24 million wasted on Sen. Cory Booker's special election
• $6.5 million for Gov. Christie's legal fees for Bridgegate
• $279 million wasted on the cancellation of the Arc Tunnel project
• $150 million in no-bid, over-priced contracts for Ash Britt Sandy cleanup
• $25 million wasted on post-Sandy Jersey Shore tourism ads featuring Gov. Christie and his family during his re-election year
• $8.9 billion settlement with Exxon thrown away in favor of a more corporate-friendly settlement of $225 million
• $1 million for Gov. Christie's security as he travels the country testing the presidential waters
• $2.6 billion wasted in state lottery privatization
• $18 million tab the state had to pick up after the Super Bowl left town
• $441K wasted fighting OPRA requests that Christie eventually lost
• $82 million subsidy for Philadelphia 76ers practice facility in Camden that yielded virtually no new jobs
• $1.5 billion in pension management fees paid since 2010; $600 million in 2014 alone
• $3.8 billion loss in pension gains due to the transfer of funds to 'alternative funds' run by politically connected Wall St. companies

That adds up to almost $21 billion wasted by one governor. 

Legislators love to say there's no money. Well, of course there's no money when your governor squanders it like this! Throw in 9 credit downgrades, 49th in job growth, and first in forclosures—all since Christie took office—and this state is a hot mess. But who cares about those details when you're up in New Hampshire touting your signature, bipartisan legislation?

With an unfunded liability of $40 billion, that $21 billion would have gone a long way toward getting the fund off life support. Combine Christie's complete lack of concern for almost 10% of the state's population with the fact that—a) too many Democratic legislators sold out public employees by cutting the pension deal, and b) GOP electeds don't have the guts to vote for veto overrides, even when a bill passes unanimously—and public employees have every right to be angry.

So, when Asm. O'Scanlon asks:

"Do you want to yell at me or do you want to have a discussion?"

I say, where were all the "discussions" about reviving this state's economy to generate the revenue to fund the pension? At this point, "discussion" sounds like another word for kicking the can down the road. We can discuss til the cows come home, but sooner or later action must be taken because hundreds of thousands of NJ citizens, many of whom have dedicated 25, 30, 40 years or more to the people of this state are staring down the business end of a rifle that's set to fire in 12 years and is aimed right at their survival. As for the rest of us who haven't retired yet, we don't stand a snowball's chance in hell of having any kind of meaningful retirement. Talk about a liability. What will the state do with hundreds of thousands of new people filing for public assistance?

So, what happens when, during discussion, someone isn't heard? They tend to get louder. And often times they keep getting louder...
until someone... 
finally...
HEARS THEM!

That's where we are right now. The rank and file public employees who've dutifully followed the law and put over $10 billion into the pension fund over the past 20 years, and who just got screwed by the State Supreme Court are really, really mad. And when a bunch of them get together in one place and they're carrying signs and a bull horn, they are going to get very, very loud.

As I said earlier, to Asm. O'Scanlon's credit, he's not afraid to discuss the issue out in the open:

But, 'trying' will not fix this mess. Action and tough choices will. And by 'tough choices', I don't mean any more sacrifices by public employees. We've done more than our fair share, thank you very much. No, part of that action must come from ensuring that everyone in NJ pays their fair share. And that means corporations because, after all, they're people, too. 

As I always say to my students when they tell me they 'tried' to do something and couldn't:

Every Assembly seat is up for re-election this year. Every member of the Assembly says they want to fix the pension. The budget has to be passed by June 30th. Let's see which members of the State Legislature will walk the walk instead of just talking the talk. 

Is the NJ pension crisis Christie's Waterloo?

It's the 15th of the month, and once again, along with thousands of other public employees across the state, I made my legally-required pension payment. How about you, Gov. Christie? No? I didn't think so.

If you live in NJ, you'd have to be living under a rock to not know about the pension battle raging in Trenton. And if you're reading this, you also know that this debacle is decades old with Democratic and Republican governors being equal opportunity offenders as one after another raided the once-flush fund to plug budget holes and prop up their pet projects. (Bonus points for alliteration!)

So, what can public employees do to fix this mess? Nothing. We didn't cause it and we can't cure it. The only thing we can and should do is demand nothing less than full funding of the pension system as required by the law Gov. Christie touts as his signature, bipartisan 'reform'. Because while he was busy cutting deals with certain Democrats to 'fix' this fiasco (translation: public employees work more, pay more and get less in return while the super wealthy and corporations get tax breaks) he was also doing this—with the blessings of the NJ Democratic Party Machine and GOP legislators who have been too afraid to stand up to him: 



The state can afford to fix this crisis; it all comes down to priorities. If Christie can afford to give tax breaks to the super wealthy and corporations—which, by the way, has done little to spur the state's economy—he can afford to make his legally-obligated pension payments. If he doesn't, this will happen in 12 years:

It's really that simple, folks. 

But that would mean helping public employees, and if there's one thing Gov. Christie hates, it's public employees. So he keeps beating the same dead horse, continuing to excoriate us, oddly fighting his signature legislation in court, while his poll numbers point to a populace that has grown weary of the blustering, the bullying and the flat-out lies. He's acting less like a confident presidential candidate and more like one who has to play defense. And that is way outside Gov. Christie's comfort zone. At yesterday's town hall meeting taxpayer funded campaign stop there was this bit of irony:

“There is still the deadly sins of the past that we have to fix and they’re the things that we do, promises that politicians make to folks, have made to folks, with no understanding of how they’re going to be paid for and those big things right now are pensions and health care, health insurance for public workers.” (emphasis mine)

Gov. Christie 2009 campaign promise

And this response to a retired educator who asked for shared sacrifice from the state's wealthiest: 

“You want shared sacrifice, then have health benefits like everybody else has,” Christie replied to huge applause.

The problem is, gov, thanks to you, we do have health benefits like everybody else. Have you forgotten? As I wrote in a previous post, last year NJ Spotlight reported on how your signature legislation has affected our 'lavish perks':

"[T]he average New Jersey government employee is paying more for individual health insurance coverage than government workers in any other state and the 10th-highest average premium for family coverage in the country.

"Further, state and local government workers are paying a much higher percentage of the cost of their individual health insurance policies than private-sector employees in New Jersey have been paying, and not much less than the percentage paid by the state’s private-sector workers for family coverage." (emphasis mine)

This was your doing, part of your crowing legislative achievement that put us in this position. Don't you remember? What will happen to all of us if the pension system goes belly-up? Our retirement savings will be wiped out, our health insurance premiums will only continue to head in one direction (up), and we can't even move out of state because, thanks to another genius piece of legislation you signed into law, we're basically indentured servants. 

Perhaps you could use a few extra gardeners to care for your estate?

Gov. Christie made his tough guy reputation by trampling on the backs of the middle class and the working poor and the state has plenty to show for it. As he inches ever closer to announcing his presidential candidacy, our governor is looking more like this guy:  

Will Fox News be Christie's St. Helena?

Gov. Christie's pension battle: "Weird NJ"

Governor/Presidential Candidate Christie tours the country touting bipartisan pension and health benefits reform as the signature accomplishment of his administration. Part of that reform was his legal obligation to make regularly scheduled contributions in order to get the system off life support. (See here for cliff notes on the long history of the state's underfunding of the system.) 

Today, the Supreme Court of New Jersey will hear arguments in the ongoing pension battle between the state's public employee unions and the Christie administration because the governor has decided he can't come up with the full, legally obligated payments that he signed into law. 

Rather than raise taxes on the top 1% or invest in education, infrastructure and job training, he gave away hundreds of millions in corporate tax breaks that yielded few jobs, and slashed funding to programs and services (including almost $6 billion to education) that would have helped the majority of New Jerseyans increase their quality of life and support the economy—a scenario that's playing out in Republican run states all across the country. Democrats, who control the legislature, have never gotten enough votes to override his draconian cuts because GOP legislators have never gone against the will of the enforcer governor. Now, with several of those D leaders jockeying for their party's gubernatorial nomination, and Christie's poll numbers tanking, they are not so willing to play in the gov's sandbox anymore. 

Christie promised to reform the system, to save it from default—except when he couldn't do it by hurting the very people it belongs to: middle class workers. So, now he's in court presenting arguments that his signature law is illegal.

Only in New Jersey...

An open letter to NJEA members

Hey you. Yea, you, NJEA member. The one with the stack of homework to correct and report cards to complete. The one working the after school club or coaching to put a few extra bucks in your wallet. The one heading off to that second or third job because your salary and that club and that coaching aren't enough. The one who has no time to advocate because you're just trying to keep your head above water. I'm talking to you. You need to stop what you're doing right now and read this.

See that counter on the right side of this screen? That's counting down to D-Day: the day the NJ pension system runs dry. That's right, I said, 'dry' as in running out of money. That's 12 years. For everyone. E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E. Doesn't matter if you're a first year teacher or a 20 year retiree. There is no grandfather clause, no sliding scale. Nothing. Nada. Zippo. Say buh-bye to your future and hello to working til you drop.

It's that serious.

How'd it happen? Well, there's plenty of blame to go around starting with Gov. Christie Todd Whitman who, along with subsequent governors from both sides of the aisle, used the fund like a cash cow while we were making our legally obligated payments. 

So, what did that get us? This:

Take a look at that red line. That's how much the state has actually contributed since 1996. The blip between '07 and '08 is courtesy of former Gov. John Corzine. The next blip is Gov. Christie's 'fix'. Notice the difference between the grey line (what the state is supposed to contribute) and the actual contribution. So much for his 'landmark' pension reform law that was supposed to solve this crisis. That black line is us—NJEA members steadily making our required contributions while one governor after another used our deferred compensation—not an entitlement—to plug budget holes and who knows what else (perhaps a bankrupt casino in AC?). But what about that grey line? That, my friends, is trouble with a capital 'T'. That is the unfunded liability, the direct result of that red line being flat for years, and the pile of cash the state has to come up with to keep this from happening: 

That bottom graph tells the whole story. If we do nothing, our pensions will be sunk in 12 years. If we do nothing, we're merely deck chairs on the Titanic. Now, I don't know about you, but I'd rather fight with Rose and Jack than end up as flotsam and jetsam in the North Atlantic.

So, what can you do? Plenty. Here are 5 simple things you can do starting today to join the fight: 

1. Become a Pension Activist. Go to the NJEA's special pension website and sign up. Please don't say you have no time for this. None of us do, but we have no choice. And besides, no one can fight for your pension better than you. If we all don't fight for this, there will be nothing left to fight for. 
2. Contact your legislator. You'll find yours here. Call, write, tweet, email, send a carrier pigeon. Do whatever it takes, but make sure they know you expect them to follow the law—the law that had bipartisan support. The full assembly is up for re-election this year, so be sure to contact them first. 
3. Click on the resources tab for lots of information including the complete NJEA PowerPoint referenced above.
4. Join the Payday Twitter Storm. Every 15th and 30th of the month NJEA members are tweeting our state elected officials reminding them that we made our pension payment because it's the law, so why shouldn't they? Use the hashtag #fundnjpension. Not on Twitter? Well, what are you waiting for?
5. Stand in solidarity with your NJEA brothers and sisters across the state by wearing black on 5/6/15. That's when the NJ Supreme Court will hear arguments in our case. Post photos of you and your colleagues standing up for your rights, our rights, our deferred compensation on social media.

We are 200,000 strong. Can you imagine if every one of us took action over the next few weeks? Can you imagine if every one of us made our voice heard? Can you imagine what changes we could make? 

What would that look like...? 

What would that sound like...? 

How would you feel...? 

Got that mental picture? 

Great! Now go do it! 

A special note to those who think NJEA has gone against us: While I don't always agree with the decisions made by my association, on this issue I trust them completely. There was no 'deal'. There was an agreement to talk, but never to collude. Did they look at other options? Sure, they'd be stupid if they didn't. But that was never their first priority. 

Still not sure? Then ask yourself this: Are you really going to trust this man who has done nothing but denigrate, criticize, bully and flat out lie to us? Who is on a one-man mission to destroy our profession, our students' futures and the one, great equalizer in a democracy? Someone who has called us bullies, thugs, drug dealers, greedy, selfish and lazy?

"I am tired of you people." 

"I will protect your pensions. Nothing about your pension is going to change when I am governor."

Or are you going to trust the elected officers of your association who are 100% committed to this:

When the infighting starts, they win.