CWA Gets New Jersey Lawmakers to Back Constitutional Referendum on Pension Funding

The New Jersey Senate Budget Committee and the Assembly Judicial Committee have approved a resolution setting a referendum on the November 2016 ballot on a constitutional amendment that addresses funding of the state public pension system.

If approved by New Jersey voters, the amendment would restore the integrity of the public pension system, safeguard the benefits of more than 800,000 workers and put the state on track for full pension funding by 2022.

The amendment requires the state to make annual pension contributions on a quarterly basis, instead of the last day of the fiscal year that is the current practice. Quarterly pension payments would add millions more into the pension fund by allowing the pension investment to earn interest over the course of the year, saving New Jersey taxpayers $13 billion over the next 30 years. Governor Christie has twice vetoed legislation requiring quarterly pension payments.

"For more than 20 years, we have struggled to get this pension payment regularly and consistently paid," said Hetty Rosenstein, state director of the Communications Workers of America. "When the NJ Supreme Court allowed Governor Christie to break both his word and his own law by refusing to fund the pension, we said our union would never permit the destruction of the pension system and New Jersey's economy."

"Without a fair funding plan, there is a financial disaster looming, not only for our members but for the entire state of New Jersey. Because only one of two things can happen if the payments to the plan are not made: either the pension goes broke and $9 billion a year has to be taken out of the general funds, or the pension goes broke and the state of New Jersey tries to renege on paying $9 billion out of the general fund, and 800,000 people lose their benefits," Rosenstein said.

In 2011, a reform law was adopted promising that the state would make its payments in return for high contributions from workers. Workers did their part, but Gov. Christie reneged on the state's side of the bargain.