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?

NJ GOP is not stronger than Superstorm Christie

For those readers old enough to remember, this image is a parody of the fierce reaction to President Gerald Ford's infamous but false response to NY City's 1970's financial crisis. Even though he never said those words, he might as well have because his reaction to the city's request for financial help was part of his political undoing. 

My point is not to rehash what happened 40 years ago so, gentle readers, please limit your comments to current events. If you want the back story, read this NY Times piece. In a nutshell it was a classic case of liberal vs. conservative values locked in a game of Chicken. The only difference is that unlike many of today's elected officials, both sides blinked: they came together and worked it out. 

With 30 years’ hindsight, some of the players say that if Mr. Ford had acquiesced to the city’s appeals months or even weeks earlier, New York might never have recovered. 

“Ford was good for New York, because he made us clean up our act,” said Henry J. Stern, a former parks commissioner and city councilman. 

On balance, investment banker Felix G. Rohatyn said, “I think he was a plus. Ford did change his mind, and you can’t say that about every president.” 

Edward I. Koch, who succeeded Mr. Beame, said of Mr. Ford: “Obviously he was persuaded his original position was wrong, and that shows a great man open to change. I hold nothing against him. And there are very few people, even when they’re dead, that I hold nothing against.”

2014: This isn't Ronald Reagan's version of bipartisanship

While worshipping at the feet of the tax-raising, deficit-raising, federal spending-raising, amnesty-giving, Ronald Reagan, Gov. Christie forgets that despite their political and philosophical differences, Reagan and then House Speaker Tip O'Neill had a good working relationship. Although Christie touts his ability to work across the aisle, he and Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney are no 'Tip and the Gip'. Case in point: last month he conditionally vetoed the 'Sandy Bill of Rights'.

The bill (S1306), sponsored by Sweeney (D-Gloucester), passed the state Senate 34-0 in March. But Christie conditionally vetoed it on May 12 — proposing more than 150 changes and removing entire sections — including the bill’s name.

... "including the bill's name" because in Gov. Christie's eyes, people who've lost everything, who've been homeless for over a year and a half, who've endured endless days, weeks and months of bureaucratic runaround, who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, who have lost their jobs, their businesses, their neighborhoods, their schools—their entire way of life—who still can't find decent temporary housing don't deserve to be treated with basic human dignity. They don't deserve a Bill of Rights. Maybe because they can't write big donation checks to the RNC.

But according to Christie, what they do deserve is $5 million in taxpayer dollars given to a politically connected firm to create "Stronger Than The Storm" tourism re-election ads prominently featuring him and his family because, you know, nothing says Jersey Shore like the Christie family sitting on a beach during campaign season!

A whole new game of Chicken

I've been trying to find the right adjective to describe the behavior of Senate Republicans. Sorry, I can't dig down far enough into the sewer, so I will let them speak for themselves:

In a letter today to Sweeney on behalf of his members, Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Union) said they won’t be voting against the governor. 

“While we support much of the concept behind Senate bill 1306, we do not believe it will achieve these worthy goals if enacted in its current form,” Kean wrote. “As stated in the Governor’s conditional veto, provisions of S-1306 are in direct conflict with numerous federal laws and regulations and the original version could harm the very people it intends to help.” 

Kean also said the bill would force New Jersey to “prioritize” aid for Spanish speakers “if the original outreach efforts were not deemed sufficient.”
Sweeney in a statement called Kean's letter "disgusting" and "sickening." 

"This is the height of hypocrisy. The Republican members of the Legislature are so scared of doing anything in opposition of this governor that they won't even support getting basic answers and information to people who've lost their homes. It's disgusting. There was nothing wrong with this bill when they all voted for it in March and now, suddenly, they all oppose the exact same bill. This is sickening. And the worst part is their cowardice is merely punishing folks who've already lost so much."

The bill was written in response to complaints from residents and businesses about the slow pace of Sandy aid distribution.

What in God's name happened between the time that vote was taken and Christie red-lined that bill? My guess is that, as he has been rumored to do, he paid a little visit to the state Republican caucus and ripped a few people a new one. Pretty easy to do when you are Fundraiser in Chief for your national party, and your 'bipartisanship' consists of bullying and intimidating anyone and everyone in Trenton without a backbone.

What's so terribly, horribly wrong with S1306:

For all you policy wonks, here's the bill that the Office of Legislative Services approved, and here's his conditional veto.

The bill clearly says that anything in it that is contrary to federal rules gives deference to those rules, so the complaint that some of it is not compliant with federal guidelines is patently false.

Is it my imagination or do a lot of the vetoed items seem petty and self-serving? For example:

He doesn't want you to know how much damage Superstorm Sandy Caused:

Page 2, Section 2, Line 13: Delete “inflicted more than $36 billion of damage on New Jersey,”

He doesn't want you to know that recovery efforts are far from complete:

Page 2, Section 2, Line 18: Delete “far from” and insert “not yet”

He doesn't want you to know that too many people have been victimized by his botched handling of the relief effort, even though this bill passed with bipartisan support:

Page 2, Section 2, Line 19: Delete “Since the recovery effort began, too many victimized” and insert “Recognizing that there are numerous challenges associated with the efficient and expedient distribution of federal recovery resources following a disaster of the scale of Superstorm Sandy, the processes for”

He doesn't want you to know that there are problems:

Page 2, Section 2, Line 22: Delete “These problems”

He doesn't want certain Sandy victims to have rights (this is actually line 31):

Page 3, Section 3, Line 32: Delete “, shall have the following rights” and insert “is treated fairly in that process”

He doesn't want storm victims to have the right to appeal an "award amount, a placement on a waiting list, a contractor selection, or any other decision that the applicant might reasonably view as unfavorable." Seriously?!?

Page 3, Section 3, Lines 44-46: Delete in their entirety

And possibly the most damaging red line to Sandy victims is the fact that he doesn't want any information that is available in English to also be available in Spanish. Here's what the bill says:

6 (7) The right to access all information on recovery and 

7 rebuilding programs in both English and Spanish. Whether online, 

8 over the telephone, or through in-person communications, all 

9 information provided on a recovery and rebuilding program in 

English 1 [must] shall1 

10 be available concurrently, accurately, and 

11 comprehensively in Spanish, and in any other languages required 

pursuant to State or federal law1 12 . 

Here's his conditional veto:

Page 6, Section 3, Lines 1-15: Delete in their entirety

Read it for yourself, folks. I'm not making this stuff up.

With micromanagement like this, does anyone really believe he didn't know what happened on the GWB?

Not stronger than the storm

Sen. Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr., Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) and the rest of the Trenton GOP are boarding up their shops and issuing an evacuation order against the threat of Superstorm Christie. This is a disgrace and it's a slap in the face of every man, woman and child who is still homeless some 20 months post-Sandy.

But grass-roots organizations like New Jersey Working Families and Fair Share Housing have been pressuring state agencies to indeed be 'stronger than the [Christie] storm'. Just yesterday it was announced that: 

The New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency's board voted 6-0 to approve new guidelines for distribution of a second round of 4190 million in federal money for the Fund for Restoration of Multifamily Housing.

Time for action

On June 12, the state legislature will attempt to override Gov. Christie's veto of the Sandy Bill of Rights. Here's what you can do:

1. Contact your state legislator and demand that he/she votes with the override. There's a link to their contact info on the right side of this page. 
2. Send a Tweet to the following legislators and urge them to support the override:
   Sen. Tom Kean: @TomKean
   Sen. Jen Beck: @JenBeckNJ
   Sen. Jim Holzapfel (R-Ocean): @JimHolzapfel
   Sen. Bob Singer (R-Monmouth & Ocean): @BobSingerNJ

Final thoughts

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Gov. Christie doesn't care about you or me. He doesn't care about the middle class or the poor or single mothers or children or teachers or cops or firefighters or senior citizens or minorities or the LGBT community or public schools or anything or anyone else he has screwed over in the past 5 years because they can't further his political ambitions. And now we can add Sandy victims. There is only one person Chris Christie cares about: Chris Christie.



George, you nailed it.