Stop Spending My Money
It’s great to see some Democrats finally coming around to our position and standing up for New Jersey’s taxpayers. As we have pointed out many times, public employees in New Jersey receive salaries and benefits that exceed those earned by private sector employees. The unsustainable cost of public employees is a major cause of the state’s financial crisis. Governor Jon Corzine has proposed nothing in his budget that addresses this crisis and now three Democrats in the New Jersey legislature have called him on it.
State Senator Stephen M. Sweeney (D-3 rd LD), State Assemblyman Jerry Green (D-22nd LD) and State Assemblyman Paul Moriarty (D-4th LD) have proposed a plan to cut state compensation costs by 15 percent. They have also launched a website – Stop Spending My Money.
More from Dynamobuzz and New Jersey Fiscal Folly.
State Senator Stephen M. Sweeney (D-3 rd LD), State Assemblyman Jerry Green (D-22nd LD) and State Assemblyman Paul Moriarty (D-4th LD) have proposed a plan to cut state compensation costs by 15 percent. They have also launched a website – Stop Spending My Money.
"After reading the spin by those in Trenton who want to protect the institution of government and the culture of entitlement, we found contradictions between their rhetoric and the hard facts that need to be pointed out to the taxpaying public," said Sweeney, who also serves as Business Agent and Treasurer of Ironworkers Local 399, in Westville, NJ.The Stop Spending My Money has the facts and busts the myths.
"Our plan calls for a 15% cut in state employee compensation deals. This could mean ending lifetime health benefits for dependents of state employees…it could mean an end to 100% taxpayer funded workers compensation for up to a year at full salary…it could mean more employee contributions for healthcare coverage and its increasing costs…it could even mean layoffs. But we need to start somewhere. It's just not fair for government bureaucrats to say that everyone else needs to feel the pain of higher taxes without sharing that pain as well," said Sweeney.
"State employee leaders claim that the contract they bargained with the state should be honored. We couldn't agree more…Perhaps these state employees ought to take a hard look at their own contract, because it spells out in plain English that the buck stops ultimately with the Legislature when it comes to continuing their entitlements each year through the appropriation process. Our reform plan and the underlying premise of their contract is consistent because it states clearly that state employees need to cooperate fully in the interest of the state during times of fiscal constraint," said Sweeney.It’s about time lawmakers began to represent the taxpayers in New Jersey. Join the campaign to make New Jersey more affordable. Contact your State Legislators and tell them to Stop Spending Your Money.
More from Dynamobuzz and New Jersey Fiscal Folly.
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Posted by Enlighten-NewJersey @ 12:27 PM
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3 Comments:
Where are they receiving their information from. Review the facts before endorsing what these senators are doing.
Dependents of state employees (other then the spouse if the spouse does not have their own benefits package) do not receive life time coverage. There is a cost (deduction) for all health benefits plans except one.
Why is workmans compensation deducted from my check if I receive up to one year totally paid by the taxpayers?
A huge amount of the state workforce resides within the city of Trenton. Many of these families are one salary families or one full and one part time salary. If you attempt to reduce salaries 15% across the board you then put people in the position of having to request supplements in order to support their families or themselves. These supplements come from state funded programs so in essence you may reduce salaries but any savings will be wiped out by increases in supplementary programs
We agree with you on not cutting off spouses (partners) from medical benefits at retirement. However, we don’t think the insurance should be free and we think the premiums, deductibles, co-pays, coverage etc. should be in-line with the private sector for active and retiree medical plans.
On workers’ Comp, state workers receive the regular amount in workers’ compensation plus a supplemental amount paid by taxpayers.
They’re not calling for any reduction in state worker salaries, but there was a mention of not granting salary increases next year. Currently Corzine’s budget calls for a $542 million increase in spending on state jobs.
However, they don’t explain how much each of their initiatives would save – raising the retirement age to 60, calculating pensions on last five years instead of last one or last three years, use it or lose it sick and vacation pay, etc.
One would assume if the work week was increased from 35 to 40 hours and the number of days off with pay was reduced, fewer workers would be needed thereby reducing costs.
I believe everybody ought to look at this.
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