Bridge-gate versus Pension-gate. Pension is a scandal, not a crisis.

Bridge-gate has taken on a life of its own.  The scandal surrounding the lane closures to the GW bridge has lead to firings, subpoenas, hearings, news headlines, drops in the Governor's popularity poll, and possibly (and hopefully) a severely diminished chance of the fat man becoming our next President.  And over what?  Lane closures and lies.  Mainly lies, since that is where the investigation seems to be surrounding.  Lies.  Did the Governor lie or not? 

I can answer that succulently.  Yes he did lie.  Did he lie about the bridge scandal?  That one I can't answer for sure, but I can answer for sure that he did lie about the New Jersey pension scandal.  Did I say scandal?  Odd, nobody else did.  It's called a "crisis" instead of a scandal.  But really it is a scandal.  If the Governor lying about his knowledge of the lane closures is considered a scandal, then the pension "crisis" is surely a scandal.  The Governor lied to the police and fire unions, putting words in writing, and then did the opposite.  Can you call this anything other than a lie?  Sure.  How about a "fabrication", or he was "just kidding" when he promised in writing not to change the pension of current or retired police and fire union members.

If there is so much fuss about the Governor possibly lying to the public about his part in the lane closures on the GW bridge, where we don't know for sure if he lied, then why is there no fuss about the fact that he clearly lied about the pension?  Why is there no Assembly committee hearings and subpoenas about this like there are for the lane closures?   

The bridge scandal, or "bridge-gate" as it is known as, began August 13, 2013 with an email exchange.  On September 9th, two of three access lanes are shut for a "traffic study" that never was.  We all know the story from there.  But do you know the story of the pension scandal?  You probably know some, since the Governor has been shoving it down the publics throats for years.  The only thing is, you are only hearing what he is saying, which may or may not be the truth.  Personally, I say it is not the truth. 

The lane closures took about four hours from beginning to end.  People were inconvenienced; some a little and some much more.  But it only lasted four hours.  The pension scandal, which I call "pension-gate", has been happening for decades, ever since Governor Whitman put her grubby little paws into the well funded police & fire pension fund, removed billions of dollars, and used this money for her own agenda.  The money was never put back, and each and every Governor since her has done the same.  Now the pension system is having major problems.

Pension-gate has affected thousands upon thousands, and cost people countless dollars.  It has forced current officers to pay more into their pension, eliminated the cost of living increases for retired officers, and forced current officers to also pay for a portion of their medical insurance, when for decades the good benefits were the trade off for lower pay.  I know some of you reading this might think "so what?  I pay for my medical insurance, why shouldn't they?"  Primarily because its a change of the rules mid-stream to fix a problem they didn't create.  I have no problem if someone takes a job knowing what the rules are; knowing they will be paying a portion of their medical insurance.  But changing the rules for current employees to fix a problem created by someone else is unjust.  The police and fire unions did not cause this problem, even if the media wants you to believe they did.  The union members are not "greedy and evil", but have paid their dues without so much as a hiccup.  The government has not.  Billions in missed pension payments were not the fault of the unions, but were the fault of the Governor.  Lets not forget the 2% cap the Governor put on pay increases, while at the same time he gave many of his staff raises of up to 23% (http://www.northjersey.com/news/christie-staffers-get-hefty-pay-increases-as-other-areas-face-cuts-1.1025934).

The NJEA is taking some action.  Take just a minute to read this link: http://www.njea.org/news/2014-05-22/take-action-to-protect-your-pension.  Click the appropriate box for the type of pension you are in and submit as required.  It only takes a minute.  I have nothing to do with this, but felt it was a step in the right direction. 

More action will be needed.  More attention needs to be put on the fact that this is a scandal, not a crisis. 

Thoughts?  Comments?

More bad news for the pension system - and more double speak by our Governor

New Jersey can't seem to keep out of the news lately.  I guess its because we have a Governor that has his sights set on a national stage.  Governor Christie is weeks away from announcing his proposal to overhaul our states pension and retiree health benefits plan.  The rumor mill is swirling that it might be some type of "hybrid" model that would reduce the defined benefit payout, as well as something like a 401k plan.  He keeps saying that the current system can't be sustained.  The reason he believes this is because he allowed towns to skip their required pension matching payments, and he also failed to make the states full pension contribution.  Although three years ago, Governor Christie himself passed a law requiring the pension payment, he decided to ignore it in order to use the money to balance the states budget.  This is just another example of his ability to talk from both sides of his mouth.  He touted this law when it was being proposed in order to (again) gain support of the police and fire unions.  "Hey, look at me, I'm fixing your problem.  I'm your friend".  Once again he lied.  He did not fix the problem.  His own law that he pushed through was ignored. 

New Jersey has already eliminated the "COLA" (Cost of Living Increases); a savings of $74 billion over 30 years according to our Governor.  He also touted another savings of $48 billion by requiring employees to pay more toward their pensions, reducing pensions for those taking early retirement, and raising the retirement age from 62 to 65.  A total savings of $112 Billion!  What's next?  Reducing all officers pay to minimum wage?  Eliminating health benefits entirely?  Health benefits is one main reason many officers joined the ranks of police and fire, or became public school teachers.

Here is a little history lesson for the uninformed. As recently as the 1980's, police officer and firefighters were relatively paid poorly compared to the private industry.  They were considered blue collar and non-professional.  In order to induce people to join the ranks of police and fire with low pay, the carrot that was dangled in front of the was good benefits.  Seemed like a fair trade off at the time.  The "problem" is that over the years, contracts regularly gave pay increases of 3-5% per year, and sometimes more.  Over time, those poor paying jobs became good paying jobs, and eventually they became very good paying jobs.  The benefits were still good, so now you have officers making good money and getting good benefits.  Along with the higher pay and benefits came the increased professionalism.  Being a police officer changed from being a "job" to being a "career".  With professionalism came better educated officers.  No longer were high school diploma's the minimum requirement.  College degrees became the norm; if not for hiring at least for promotions.  College degrees included Masters degrees and even higher over time.  It was not uncommon for a majority of officers on a department to hold college degree of one type or another.  Criminal Justice majors became more common.  Twenty-five years later, the person entering law enforcement in New Jersey was college educated who's goal it was to become a professional police officer.  Good pay and good benefits brought good candidates, who became good police officers.  Now, both the pay and benefits are good.

Unfortunately, the COST of these benefits have skyrocketed.  The insurance companies have substantially increased the cost the governments pay in order to keep the benefits as required by contracts.  Why is the government not targeting the insurance companies and asking why they have tripled the cost for the same benefits?  Good question.  I'd love to know that answer.  I can surmise that one reason is that the insurance lobby is strong.  Very strong.  Much stronger than any police and fire or teachers union in New Jersey.  They are national companies with deep pockets in Washington.  Who is an easier target?   The police, fire and teachers.  Now Governor Christie has made us look like the bad guys.  We are the reason for all this mess. "Look at those greedy public servants" he can say, and the public listens.  Governor Christie isn't stupid.  He's been voted into office twice and knows a thing or two about word play.

Word play.  Governor Christie loves this.  A perfect example was recently brought to light that makes this perfectly clear.   A perfect example of the governors double speak is when he was pushing for a tax cut in 2012.  The Governor said the state could afford the tax cut because of positive economic growth.  Dr. David Rosen, the Chief Budget officer for the States office of legislative service disagreed.  The Governor responded by lambasting Dr. Rosen and calling him "the Dr. Kevorkian of the numbers".  The Governor said the numbers were good enough for a tax cut, and said "Why would anybody with a functioning brain believe this guy?" about Dr. Rosen, who by the way has a reputation for being right more than being wrong.  Later, when questioned by our states terrible financial crisis, Christie blames Dr. Rosen, saying that he "just got it wrong".

Recap: Christie ignores his Chief Budget Officer in 2012, calling him "the Dr. Kevorkian of the numbers" and "why would anybody with a functioning brain believe this guy".  When questioned by a reporter about our states terrible financial crisis, he blames this same person that he ignored two years earlier.

Another example of his word play and talking out of both sides of his mouth.  While facing an unexpected $2.75 billion budget gap over the next 13 months, which Christie is trying to close by delaying payments to the state’s pension fund, many on his staff have received raises of 23%!  Yes, you read that right, twenty-three percent (http://nj1015.com/some-christie-staff-members-get-large-pay-raises/).

According to NorthJersey.com, the raises come as Christie is withholding more than $2.4 billion in payments to the state pension fund because of revenue shortfalls. And Christie has delayed a property-tax relief program that averages about $500 for seniors and some families.  And the raises to the governor’s staff appear to have happened around the same time Christie vetoed the minutes of the commission that oversees the Pinelands after its members voted to increase the budget for its staff by 5 percent. Christie castigated the commissioners and said the decision was a “conscious disregard of the fiscal realities".

I'm sorry, I think I went a bit off topic there, but every time I think about how the Governor screwed the people who protect and educate the public, while being a two-faced politician, I get angrier and angrier.  Bottom line?  As time goes by, the Governor is going to continue to lie and continue to blame the unions for problems created and perpetuated by our elected officials. 

Comments?  Thoughts?  Ideas?

Pension-Gate: The lies behind Governor Christie

The New Jersey Police & Fire pension problems are making the headlines again, this time with Governor Christie using the pension fund payment he promised to make being used instead to cover an $807 million state budget shortfall.  Of course this is nothing new to current and retired members in the Police & Fire pension system.  This is just one more time that the Governor has made these members seem like the reason the state is in such a financial mess.   Once again, Governor Christie has deflected blame from the real reason for the pension mess. 

For the non-government workers reading this, imaging if you would that you had a 401k program where you worked.  You made payments into this retirement fund, and your employer made matching payments.  This money is for your retirement, and you spent your career relying on it to support yourself and family once you retire.  Years go by, and your 401k plan is looking good; really good.  Now imagine if you would that your employer decided that they wanted to pay for a totally unrelated program or project, and decided, without telling you, that they used your 401k to pay for it.  When you do take note of the “withdrawal”, you are told “don’t worry, we will put it back”, but they never do.  In fact, not only to they not put it back, but they stop making the matching payments.  And to top it off, they blame YOU, and tell you that you need to put in more money.  Sounds idiotic, doesn’t it?  This is what your government has been doing for years. 

Remember the Enron scandal?  When discrepancies were first discovered, the CEO Jeffrey Skilling verbally attacked the Wall Street analyst who questioned “unusual accounting practices” in an attempt to distract from the fact that Skilling knew exactly what was going on.  Governor Christie, our CEO, is verbally attacking the Police & Fire pension union and members in an attempt to distract the public from the fact that he and his predecessors are to blame.  This should be called “Pension-gate” to go along with bridge-gate.

I was a police officer for 25 years, and always made my pension payments; first paying 8.5% of my yearly salary into the pension system, and then later, when the governor changed the amount, I paid 10% into the pension system.  All the while, the state and municipalities were supposed to be making the same payments.  We all know these matching payments were not paid as required by law.

To see where this pension fund disaster began, we need a short history lesson.  Governor Christie did not start this mess, but he continues to perpetuate the revolving door of politicians who systematiclally raid our pension fund to pay for other shortfalls.  I place the blame squarely on the shoulders of Governor Whitman for starting this fiasco.  When she was elected to lead our state, the pension fund was well funded with over 100 billion dollars.  Yes, billion; with a B.  This was our money, and not funds allocated for any other resource.  Governor Whitman began taking money from this pension fund without so much as asking.  She simply took it to pay for various items, including balancing the state budget.  The pension fund was so well funded that she permitted the state and municipalities to stop making their required matching pension payments, but she did not permit the members; the men and women it was meant to help, to stop making their payments.  Billions of dollars were not paid into the pension system by the governments, but like good little soldiers, we kept making our 8.5% payments without missing a beat.  The government payments which were “deferred” were supposed to be made up later.  Smart towns realized this and put money away in something like an escrow account, to be used to make the payments later.  Most towns did nothing except to use that money for other purposes, leaving themselves open for future problems when they had to repay the money.  Who do you think the government blamed when they were eventually told to make their payments?  They blamed the pension fund and the members of the unions of course.

Governor Whitman was not the only one to raid the pension fund.  Each and every Governor has followed suit, including Governor Christie.  The pension raids were done routinely, causing the fund to dwindle.  Governor Corzine was the one who told the towns it was time to put back the deferred payments.  The towns that did not prepare for this day were in for sticker shock.  They now had to make up the missed payments to the tune of billions of dollars collectively.  Towns couldn’t afford to make the payments if they failed to sock the money away, so the only way to raise the money was to raise taxes. Who did they blame for this?  They blamed the pension system; the evil and despicable police and fire union members who diligently made their payments while the municipalities were given a temporary reprieve.

Governor Christie, you are a bold faced liar.  When you first ran for office, you made a promise to the Police & Fire union IN WRITING because you wanted our vote. The unions backed you after you published this letter:

 click to enlarge

 

Let me quote Governor Christie.  “It is a sacred trust.  Nothing will change for the pension of current officers, future officers or retirees in a Christine Administration”.  Governor Christie put this in writing and published it for the world to see.  He did this to gain the support of a block of voters, and it worked.  We believed in him and supported him based upon a lie. He lied to us then and he is lying to you now.