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Philadelphia Inquirer ‘New Jersey public workers in eye of benefit-cut storm’
Njpressmedia.com ‘Parsippany board gets backing on superintendent contract’
Politickernj.com ‘Rutgers-Eagleton: voters split on Christie's budget’
Star Ledger ‘N.J. workers union says bill on medical benefit contributions would hurt 'collective bargaining' power’
Philadelphia Inquirer ‘New Jersey public workers in eye of benefit-cut storm’
By Cynthia Burton, 3-1-11, Inquirer Staff Writer
Within 15 minutes, Gov. Christie had a crowd of about 400 applauding as he talked about a "dumb" pension hike and "Cadillac" health care for public workers.
He noted again and again that those were benefits many in the group didn't have but were financing with their taxes in a state on the brink.
As potent as his comments were for the group, his words were directed mostly at an audience of one: New Jersey Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney, who will play a pivotal role in negotiating the state's $29.4 billion budget.
On Thursday, Christie took his first town meeting since introducing his budget to West Deptford, where Sweeney lives. Part of the strategy was to show Sweeney that a working-class gathering could support the Republican governor's plans to make public employees pay more for their benefits.
But Sweeney isn't clapping with the crowd, just yet.
"I thought that was very cute on his part," Sweeney said, adding that the town-hall meetings are packed with Christie supporters who get e-mails telling them that their celebrity governor will be in town. (The governor's office says the town halls are open to all comers.)
In his budget address last Tuesday, Christie said that if the Democratic-controlled Legislature agreed to health-care concessions, he would give people earning less than $75,000 a property-tax credit - a direct appeal to middle- and working-class voters to pressure the Legislature.
Sweeney and Christie already agree that public employees should pay more for their pension and health-care benefits. They disagree on how much.
The fact, though, that they've both made proposals without negotiating with the public-employee unions has some Democrats and union leaders scratching their heads because Sweeney is a business agent for Ironworkers Local 399.
But it doesn't surprise Tom Juravich, a labor-studies professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, that a union leader and a working-class audience would seem sympathetic to cutting union compensation.
Polls show that after years of trying to survive in a down economy, the public has lost faith in the ability of institutions - including unions, corporations, and the government - to solve problems, he said.
"They are hopeless about institutions," he said, "and have decided, 'I want to go out there and get what's good for me.' The irony is if the public-sector worker gets massive wage cuts, they will get cuts."
The notion that state workers are overpaid and over-pensioned, Juravich said, is simply not true because pensions are modest. (New Jersey's Communications Workers of America retirees average $25,000 to $28,000.) And, he said, teachers are generally paid less than other workers with comparable educations.
The country is "recalibrating. We need to have a tightening of the belt, but we have to be careful," Juravich said.
Overly deep cuts could create an unproductive workforce and a dangerously deteriorated quality of government services, he said.
Hetty Rosenstein, state director of the Communications Workers of America, which represents 40,000 state workers, said Christie was trying to divide the middle class against itself.
"Working- and middle-class families reject these efforts to protect the wealthy, vilify public workers, and divide neighbor against neighbor," she said in a statement.
Under pressure from moves in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and other states to cut benefits and bargaining rights, public workers have been rallying with other unionists and community groups to build support for their causes.
But in New Jersey, the state Building and Construction Trades Council voted to boycott a large rally Friday to support public workers.
In a memo, the council called the rally "a veiled attempt by the state AFL-CIO to pull the building trades into a public employees dispute." Still, there were members of building-trades unions in the crowd of about 3,100.
Public-worker and building-trades unions have long-standing tensions.
Sweeney said the public workers were his friends but added, "We really are in different worlds. . . . If my health care goes up, I have a choice: I either put more of my pay into it or my next raise."
About 15 years ago, Sweeney said he told a room of retirees that their health insurance would be cut.
New Jersey state workers, he said, haven't had to make sacrifices as large as those made by others - a statement that made him sound an awful lot like the governor. State workers argue that they have taken pay freezes and furloughs and that they cover some of their benefit costs.
Christie, for his part, seems intent on channeling the mood of those tired of struggling in a tough economy.
If the Legislature doesn't give him his benefit concessions, he told his audience, "you'll know they're taking the side of special interests over you."
Contact staff writer Cynthia Burton at 856-779-3858 or cburton@phillynews.com.
Njpressmedia.com ‘Parsippany board gets backing on superintendent contract’ 10:30 PM, Feb. 28, 2011
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Fourth attempt to rescind Parsippany superintendent's contract fails
The head of an organization that represents school administrators is criticizing Gov. Chris Christie for using the school board's budget approval process as the latest battleground in the fight over Superintendent Lee Seitz's disputed contract extension.
Executive County Superintendent Kathleen Serafino, in a letter to the school board on Friday, said she will reject its proposed budget for the 2011-12 school year unless it rescinds Seitz's contract — and Christie has said the district is jeopardizing its state aid.
"This is the first time we've seen activities directed by the governor's office, at least so openly. What's happening here is the governor directs the education commissioner, who directs the executive county superintendent," said Richard Bozza, executive director of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators. The association has filed an amicus brief in support of the school board's appeal to the Appellate Division of Superior Court seeking approval of Seitz's contract.
"We still believe that the outcome of the court case is important to discern before any right or wrong is placed by the executive county superintendent," Bozza, a former Montville schools superintendent, said on Monday.
Christie's spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.
The school board's attorney, Margaret Miller, said that as of 3:45 p.m. Monday the district had not received Serafino's letter, though it was released to the media on Friday.
"We have nothing to respond to at this point," Miller said in an e-mail.
Serafino has said she never approved the contract, as required by state law, and directed the school board to rescind it on Nov. 15 — six days after Christie blasted the agreement as an end-run around his superintendent salary cap.
Four attempts by board member Robert Crawford to have the board rescind Seitz's contract have failed, with board President Anthony Mancuso — who unilaterally launched the legal challenge — ruling Crawford latest motion out of order on Thursday night and casting the deciding vote against a motion to overrule him.
Serafino did not return a phone call on Monday. Her brief letter to the school board did not clarify exactly what rejecting the budget might mean.
Christie, speaking with reporters in Trenton on Feb. 18, said Parsippany's state aid — $2.3 million for the 2011-12 school year — could be at risk over the board's refusal to rescind the contract as ordered by Serafino on at least three occasions since November.
However, at last Thursday's school board meeting, school officials said any reduction likely would be small, perhaps the difference between Seitz's salary, currently $216,240, and the $175,000 salary cap.
Bozza said that Serafino might reduce the administrative salary portion of the budget to force a reduction, but he reiterated that she should wait for the legal challenge to be resolved.
State law, however, does appear to give executive county superintendents the authority to implement their own budget without the acquiescence of a local school board, a spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association said.
"We have seen instances in the past where the county superintendent has implemented his or her own budget," spokesman Mike Yaple said.
"When this has happened, it's usually been in cases where the local board can't come to an agreement (due to a tied vote) or can't get a quorum," Yaple said.
Yaple said that, by this Friday, the school board must submit its preliminary $129.8 million budget to Serafino. She would then return it to the board — with any changes included.
Rob Jennings: 973-428-6667; rjennings@njpressmedia.com
Politickernj.com ‘Rutgers-Eagleton: voters split on Christie's budget’
By Max Pizarro | February 28th, 2011 - 4:59pm
New Jersey voters are split in their evaluation of Gov. Chris Christie’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2012.
According to today's Rutgers-Eagleton Poll, 45% "are pleased with the budget," 48% are displeased, and 7% are not sure.
David Redlawsk, director of the Rutgers-Eagleton Poll, said negative evaluations of Christie’s budget "appear motivated both by feelings that its proposals are unfair and by a dislike of the governor’s leadership style." Positive evaluations originate in the belief Christie is trying to drastically reduce spending and in favorable personal impressions.
“While the national media give the governor plaudits for making tough budget choices, Garden Staters are not completely pleased, showing the same polarized opinions that we’ve seen all along,” said Redlawsk, who is also a political science at Rutgers.
He conducted his poll of 912 New Jersey adults among both landline and cell phone households Feb. 24-26, with a margin of error of +/- 3.3 percentage points. This sample, weighted to match the demographics of adult New Jerseyans, includes 811 registered voters, with a margin of error of +/- 3.4 percentage points.
Star Ledger ‘N.J. workers union says bill on medical benefit contributions would hurt 'collective bargaining' power’
Published: Tuesday, March 01, 2011, 6:00 AM Updated: Tuesday, March 01, 2011, 8:47 AM
By Matt Friedman/Statehouse Bureau
TRENTON — Calling it an attempt to throw out collective bargaining rights, leaders of New Jersey’s public workers unions Monday said they will launch a full court press against a bill sponsored by Senate President Stephen Sweeney that would force public employees to pay more for their health care benefits.
Hetty Rosenstein, state director for the Communication Workers of America, said her union would picket, extract pledges from lawmakers to oppose it and hold "lobby days" against the bill (S2718) over the next several weeks.
"It becomes illegal to negotiate anything different than what’s in that bill," said Rosenstein. "It preempts all collectively bargaining."
Bill Lavin, president of the state Firefighters Mutual Benevolent Association, said police and firefighters will protest it at a Statehouse rally Thursday and press all 120 lawmakers.
"It’s totally unacceptable. I think if that were to pass, it will guarantee that the Democrats will lose the majority," he said. "We’re shocked that Steve Sweeney, who calls himself a Democrat, would act in this manner ... He’s rolled over for the governor in every instance."
The pushback comes as the legislation has gained bipartisan support in the state Senate, with Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) signing on as a prime sponsor.
Public employees pay 1.5 percent of their salaries towards their health benefits. Under Sweeney’s plan and a proposal by Gov. Chris Christie, workers would pay a portion of their premiums instead and would have more plans to choose from.
Under Christie’s plan, public workers would pay 30 percent of their premiums within three years. Under Sweeney’s, they would pay a sliding scale based on income, with the highest earners eventually paying 30 percent. Christie’s plan would require current retirees to pay part of their premiums.
"I understand people being emotional, but we really have to be fair with people. We’ve got to be fair with taxpayers," said Sweeney, who denied the bill was an attempt to eliminate collective bargaining. "I’m the guy that did paid family leave. I’m the one that did the minimum wage (increase). I’m absolutely pro-worker."
Beck said she still has reservations about parts of the bill. She agreed with Sweeney that employees should pay rates based on their income, but agreed with Christie that current retirees should pay part of their premiums. "While the bill is not perfect, it’s a great place to start," she said.
Christie spokesman Kevin Roberts said the governor’s office was not upset that Beck signed onto the Democratic proposal.
"The governor has been pretty clear about the differences between our proposal and Sweeney’s. But the governor has also indicated we’re not so far apart compared to where we are on other things like pension proposals," he said.
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