My pension does not belong to politicians

   
 My pension should not be a political pawn.  Say it again:  My pension should not be a political pawn.  Okay, now that we've gotten that out of the way, lets get back to reality.  Right now, Governor Chris Christie is taking the national political stage, and he needs something meaty to bring to the table (insert food joke here). Unfortunately for countless government workers who are not making the big bucks unlike the political power-brokers, our pension is the meat; and the table is the national stage.  Governor Christie has been targeting the broken system (that he helped break) as the reason for all of the State's problems.  Fix the pension "problem", and all is well, right?  Uh, no.  Is the pension issue really a problem?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  As I've written previously, I don't see the pension as a crisis.  I see it as a scandal; a scandal that needs to be investigated by non-partisans as if this was a potential criminal act committed by our political leaders.

     When I started my public worker career years ago, my salary was relatively low compared with the private sector.  I accepted this in part due to the benefit package that came with the job.  One of the parts of the benefits package included a pension.  Not a free handout, but one that required me to pay a nominal part of my pay into the pension system that would afford me the "luxury" of a guaranteed income after I do my time. This is similar to Social Security, which by the way I never paid into and will never get.  For all you in the private sector, please read that last sentence.  I will never get a penny from Social Security because my employer did not take this from my check. Instead, they took a higher percentage of my salary (as compared to the 6.2% I would have paid as required according to Social Security Administration).  The last few years I paid 10% of my salary into my pension.  Before that I paid 8.5%.  Did you see that little two letter word two sentences back?  Who's pension did I say it was?  Mine.  I did not pay  into the Governments pension, I paid it into MY pension.  It was mine when I began my career, but lately it seems that Governor Christie wants the public to believe it's his to do with as he pleases.  Don't get me started (again) about how every governor since Christie Todd Whitman stole BILLIONS from MY pension, or how Governor Christie failed to make the required pension payments even though every foot soldier of a cop/firefighter/teacher made every payment without even a chance of skipping one.

   According to the Department of Treasure, the average firefighter & police pension benefit from this state is just under $58,000, while teachers get about $40,000.  Right now, there is no C.O.L.A. (cost of living increase), so the number you get is the number you get.  Forever.  Take into account that the average police officer dies within five years after retirement and reportedly has a life expectancy of twelve years less than that of civilians. (according to the national criminal justice reference service https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/pr/109485.pdf)

     Why is New Jersey's pension issue such a hot topic?  Because politicians made it so.  Not only did they create the problem, but once they realized just how bad it got from their mismanagement, they shouted from the highest mountain telling everyone else how bad it was and now it needs to be fixed.  What makes New Jersey different than other states?  Why aren't other states' pensions in such disarray too?  Mainly because their Governors didn't raid it like their personal cookie jars like our Governors did for decades.

     The words of Mark Webber from NJSpotlight.com,  ring true here.  He stated "These states have proved that a sustainable pension system is not a fantasy; all it requires is honesty, discipline, and an ethical code that asserts that debts must be paid. If I run up my credit cards, I don’t get to walk away from my debts just because I don’t want to make sacrifices. States are no different: New Jersey can’t abandon its obligations just because tax hikes would get in the way of Chris Christie’s presidential ambitions".

     That is what this is all about.  The political ambitions of one Chris Christie.  The man who currently makes $175,000 a year (according to data universe), was also the U.S. Attorney for the district of New Jersey (can you say "federal pension"?).  This is also the same person who was elected as a Republican to the Board of Chosen Freeholders for Morris County in 1994 (can you say another pension?).  And lets not forget that in 1993, he was made a partner for the law firm of Dughi, Hewit & Palatucci of Cranford, NJ (can you say "cha-ching!!!").  So this is not a man that cares about the little guys.  He's a shark and we are bait fish.  He'll make sure we don't grow any bigger by eating us en mass.  He's doing this little by little every time he "reforms" the pension system.  But he's not reforming it, he's destroying it.

     If the government kept its nose out of my pension, maybe I'd support someone like Christie.  Remember the letter?  You know which one I'm talking about.  I wrote about it in my first blog post on this site.  Let me remind you about "the letter" in which he described the "sacred trust" and that he would never change our pension.  He did this for our votes, which he got, and almost immediately afterwards, reversed course telling the public that the pension needs to be fixed.

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     Governor Christie, do not politicize my pension.  It is the contractual compensation I have earned for work done.  I paid for it without skipping a beat, while you have paid when it was convenient for you.  It is not yours to play politics with.  It is mine to live my life with.