| ||||||||||||
Star Ledger - Effort to cut N.J. public worker benefits advances despite 'revolutionary' opposition
Politickerknj.com - Under Sweeney’s leadership, Senate approves seminal public employee benefit reform
Associated Press - USA Today - Roll call vote on NJ public employee benefits bill
Press of Atlantic City - Despite protests, bill making public employees pay more for pensions and health passes Senate, Assembly panel
NY Times column - In New Jersey, ‘Shared Sacrifice’ for Public Workers, Not the Rich
Star Ledger - Effort to cut N.J. public worker benefits advances despite 'revolutionary' opposition
Published: Tuesday, June 21, 2011, 6:00 AM Updated: Tuesday, June 21, 2011, 8:12 AM
The Star-Ledger
TRENTON — Benjamin Franklin showed up. So did Abigail Adams and Thomas Paine. But even they couldn’t stop the Senate from passing a contentious measure Monday that will sharply raise the cost of health benefits and pensions for the state’s 500,000 public employees.
With protesters dressed in Revolutionary-era garb gathered outside the Statehouse and union members clamoring inside, the pivotal Senate vote came on the same day the Assembly Budget Committee approved by a 7-5 vote an identical version following eight hours of testimony.
After days of protest from Democrats, Republicans and union members, a last-minute provision inserted by Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) limiting public employees’ access to out-of-state hospitals was weakened hours before lawmakers met Monday.
The changes agreed to by Sweeney, shortly before the Senate approved the measure 24-15, would allow public workers to receive out-of-state care at a higher cost if a doctor decides the treatment is not available in New Jersey.
"If this bill was enacted 20 years ago, I wouldn’t have my kids today," Stephanie Rosati-Pratico, a mother of two children with Down syndrome who required special medical care from the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, told the Assembly committee. "And I think society would suffer, because my kids are great people."
The Senate vote earlier in the day was a major legislative victory for Sweeney and Gov. Chris Christie, who along with others hammered out the agreement over the last two months even as they sparred over other issues.
"Problems like the pension and health care system require fundamental change from the bottom up," Sweeney said on the Senate floor. "That kind of change comes from bold action ... and bold action often flies in the face of those who are content with the status quo."
The bill increases pension costs up to two percent of workers’ salaries for all public employees, while at least doubling, and in many cases tripling, their health care contributions. It also raises the retirement age from 62 to 65, eliminates cost-of-living adjustments and creates a board to formulate a menu of health plans, including low-cost, high-deductible options.
"I am encouraged by the bipartisan Senate vote today and the continued display of support for common-sense pension and health benefits reform," Christie said in a prepared statement. "This is a watershed moment for New Jersey, proving that the stakes are too high and the consequences all too real to stand by and do nothing."
The Assembly is scheduled to vote on the bill Thursday, when it is expected to pass — just as in the Senate — despite little Democratic support.
"Inaction is just not an option for us," Assembly Speaker Shelia Oliver (D-Essex) told the Assembly committee in her broadest public defense of the bill to date.
Oliver said public employees must pay their "fair share" to avoid further municipal layoffs and cuts to recreational and public health programs. But even various mayors who testified yesterday agreed that the changes would provide little immediate financial relief because they will be phased in and go into effect after the current contract expires.
The changes are expected to save $10 million next year, far less than the $300 million the Christie administration had expected.
The Senate legislation (S2937) passed with the support of a handful of Democrats, including Teresa Ruiz, Jeff Van Drew, Fred Madden, Jim Whelan, James Beach, Brian Stack and Donald Norcross.
One Democrat after another took the floor to condemn the bill, saying it curtailed the right to collectively bargain, drawing applause and cheers from the gallery.
Senate Majority Leader Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex) said undermining the collective bargaining process "erodes our identity as a nation."
"Today is all about politics," she said. The bill was a result of "back-room deals" instead of open debate. It restricts competition, she said, "an affront to free-market principles."
Sweeney’s defenders were primarily Republicans, including state Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Monmouth), a close friend of the governor. He called it a "historic day," and praised Sweeney’s leadership.
The day began to unfold with impersonators of Franklin, Adams, Paine, Sojourner Truth and a handful of others in costume leading a group of 200 protesters across the Calhoun Street Bridge. They were joined by hundreds of other demonstrators after making their way from Morrisville, Pa., to Trenton.
And in a display lifted from the playbook of the Tea Party movement, many of the union members carried the Gadsden Flag emblazoned with "Don’t Tread on Me."
"Those are traditional symbols of resistance form the Revolutionary War," said Steve Wollmer, a spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association. "They’re timeless."
As the crowd swelled to about 1,000 protestors marched outside the Statehouse complex chanting, "Kill the bill, kill the bill!"
Jessie Webb, a Spanish teacher and teachers’ aide in Princeton, said the state’s Democratic leaders had fallen for Christie’s claims about the financial plight of the state.
"He’s been successful at scaring them and scaring New Jersey that teachers are trying to put themselves above everyone else," Webb said, holding a cutout of Christie on a popsicle stick.
She also criticized the governor for calling for shared sacrifice, while refusing to ask millionaires to pay more in income taxes.
At one point, protesters tried to enter the Statehouse but were repelled by State Troopers.
Public employees had planned to camp out in dozens of tents pitched on the lawn behind the Statehouse, according to the union, but the attorney general’s office refused to let them stay overnight because of security concerns.
"So much for freedom of assembly in New Jersey," said Wollmer.
Staff writers Christopher Baxter, Megan DeMarco, Matt Friedman, Ginger Gibson, Chris Megerian and Sal Rizzo contributed reporting.
Politickerknj.com - Under Sweeney’s leadership, Senate approves seminal public employee benefit reform
By Timothy J. Carroll | June 20th, 2011 - 1:54pm
TRENTON – After years of vigorous debate and weeks of stirring protest, the state Senate passed landmark pension and benefit reform for public workers, which had the backing of Republican Gov. Chris Christie and Democratic majority leaders state Sen. Steve Sweeney (D-3), of West Deptford, and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-34), of East Orange.
The upper chamber approved the pension and benefit reform legislation, 24-15. State Sen. Ronald L. Rice (D-28), of Newark, did not vote.
“This is not about philosophy. It’s not about ideology,” said state Sen. Joe Kyrillos (R-13), of Middletown. “It’s about practicality. It’s about sustaining the enterprise. It’s a math problem.”
The pension reform increases worker contributions based on salary, seats more labor on pension boards, eliminates cost of living increases, and legally requires state pension contributions.
The health care reform also increases contributions based on salary through premium shares, includes employers and employees in plan design processes, allows for local control provided there is equal cost savings, and allows for collective bargaining of health care to resume after a four-year contribution ramp-up.
The reform bill also raises the retirement age for future employees to 65, and raises early retirement to 30 years of service.
The bill also eliminates a pension loophole that allows elected officials to collect a pension while continuing to serve in their position.
Sponsoring the bill and shepherding it to passage in the upper chamber, Sweeney made a few adjustments to the bill, including to two provisions that were criticized for being beneficial to political ally George Norcross III. The first provision would have barred further entrants into the state health care plan, while the second would have severely restricted beneficiaries from receiving out-of-state care. The first provision was removed by Sweeney after public scrutiny; the second provision was legislatively removed when the Senate passed a separate bill in their session today.
State Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-12), of Red Bank, who was an early co-sponsor on Sweeney’s reform bill, said the legislation makes the cost sharing and decision making for public employee health care and pensions more equal.
“Without these changes that pension system cannot survive,” she said, “and the health benefits are not far behind…We don’t have many choices and we frankly do not have much time.”
Opposing the bill, state Sen. Linda Greenstein (D-14), of Plainsboro, said, “Collective bargaining is a basic human right.” She faults the governor for not wanting to bargain for health care benefits.
Public workers have been “vilified,” she said, for an economic downturn that is a “result of a runaway financial sector. Unions were agreeable to pension reform, she said, but, “including health benefits (in the bill) crosses the line.”
State Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-1), of Dennis Township, said that although the state and politicians are mostly to blame for failing systems that necessitated the reforms, “We are where we are.” Van Drew said he supports collective bargaining, and that the bill ensures a future for these negotiations. “These are difficult times and these are tough choices,” he said.
It could have been worse for public employees, he said, like a proposed rollback of a 9 percent pension hike that Gov. Chris Christie championed.
State Sen. Nick Sacco (D-32), of North Bergen, said he is worried about retirees collecting $30,000 in their pension who now will not receive a cost of living increase, which state Sen. John Girgenti (D-35), of Hawthorne, said could drive some retirees into poverty.
Supporting the bill, state Sen. Donald Norcross (D-5), of Camden, said, “My labor credentials are second to none in this room, but we face an unprecedented crisis…The easy thing for me to do is to tell people what they want to hear.” He didn’t do that, Norcross said, and made sure that a sunset clause restoring collective bargaining – an amendment put forth by Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-34), of East Orange – was included.
State Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-36), of Wood-Ridge, appreciated the requirement for state pension payments, but couldn’t understand the historic value of legislation that has a minimal impact this coming year. “We’re only seeing $9 million (in the first year),” Sarlo said. “It’s just an attack on the collective bargaining process.”
The reforms, Kyrillos said, “will serve as a model for America.”
Voting in favor of the reforms: Dawn Marie Addiego (R-8), of Evesham; Diane Allen (R-7), of Edgewater Park; Kip Bateman (R-16), of Branchburg; Jim Beach (D-6), of Voorhees; Jennifer Beck (R-12), of Red Bank; Tony Bucco (R-25), of Boonton; Gerry Cardinale (R-39), of Demarest; Andy Ciesla (R-10), of Brick; Christopher Connors (R-9), of Lacey Twp.; Mike Doherty (R-23), of Washington Twp.; Sean Kean (R-11), of Wall; Tom Kean Jr. (R-21), of Westfield; Joe Kyrillos (R-13), of Middletown; Fred Madden (D-4), of Washington Twp.; Donald Norcross (D-5), of Camden; Kevin O'Toole (R-40), of Cedar Grove; Steve Oroho (R-24), of Franklin Twp.; Joe Pennacchio (R-26), of Pine Brook; M. Teresa Ruiz (D-29), of Newark; Robert Singer (R-30), of Lakewood; Brian Stack (D-33), of Union City; Steve Sweeney (D-3), of West Deptford; Jeff Van Drew (D-1), of Dennis Twp.; and Jim Whelan (D-2), Atlantic City,
Voting against the reforms: Barbara Buono (D-18), of Metuchen; Richard Codey (D-27), of Roseland; Sandra Cunningham (D-31), of Jersey City; Nia Gill (D-24), of Montclair; John Girgenti (D-35), of Hawthorne; Robert Gordon (D-38), of Fair Lawn; Linda Greenstein (D-14), of Plainsboro; Ray Lesniak (D-20), of Elizabeth; Nick Sacco (D-32), of North Bergen; Paul Sarlo (D-36), of Wood-Ridge; Nicholas Scutari (D-22), of Linden; Bob Smith (D-17), of Piscataway; Shirley Turner (D-15), of Lawrenceville; Joe Vitale (D-19), of Woodbridge; and Loretta Weinberg (D-37), of Teaneck.
|
Associated Press - USA Today - Roll call vote on NJ public employee benefits bill |
|
Posted 6/20/2011 6:56 PM ET |
|
TRENTON, N.J. — Roll call of the public employee pension and health benefits reform bill, which passed the Senate in a 24-15-1 vote on Monday. Voting yes, 16 Republicans and 8 Democrats. Voting no, 15 Democrats. One Democrat was absent.
Yeas:
Senator Dawn Marie Addiego Republican
Senator Diane B. Allen Republican
Senator Christopher Bateman Republican
Senator James Beach Democrat
Senator Jennifer Beck Republican
Senator Anthony R. Bucco Republican
Senator Gerald Cardinale Republican
Senator Andrew R. Ciesla Republican
Senator Christopher J. Connors Republican
Senator Michael J. Doherty Republican
Senator Sean T. Kean Republican
Senator Thomas H. Kean, Jr. Republican
Senator Joseph M. Kyrillos, Jr. Republican
Senator Fred H. Madden, Jr. Democrat
Senator Donald Norcross Democrat
Senator Kevin J. O'Toole Republican
Senator Steven V. Oroho Republican
Senator Joseph Pennacchio Republican
Senator M. Teresa Ruiz Democrat
Senator Robert W. Singer Republican
Senator Brian P. Stack Democrat
Senator Stephen M. Sweeney Democrat
Senator Jeff Van Drew Democrat
Senator Jim Whelan Democrat
Nays:
Senator Barbara Buono Democrat
Senator Richard J. Codey Democrat
Senator Sandra B. Cunningham Democrat
Senator Nia H. Gill, Esq. Democrat
Senator John A. Girgenti Democrat
Senator Robert M. Gordon Democrat
Senator Linda R. Greenstein Democrat
Senator Raymond J. Lesniak Democrat
Senator Nicholas J. Sacco Democrat
Senator Paul A. Sarlo Democrat
Senator Nicholas P. Scutari Democrat
Senator Bob Smith Democrat
Senator Shirley K. Turner Democrat
Senator Joseph F. Vitale Democrat
Senator Loretta Weinberg Democrat
Absent:
Senator Ronald L. Rice Democrat
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Press of Atlantic City - Despite protests, bill making public employees pay more for pensions and health passes Senate, Assembly panel
Public Employee Union Protests
.
Public Employee Union Protests
Revolutionary War re-enactors and others cross the Delaware River Monday, June, 20, toward Trenton as they march to the Statehouse.
Public Employee Union Protests
A large gathering of public employee union members and supporters protest on Monday, June 20, in Trenton outside the Statehouse.
Posted: Monday, June 20, 2011 10:45 pm | Updated: 8:05 am, Tue Jun 21, 2011.
State lawmakers working to increase public workers’ payments toward pensions and health insurance removed a controversial provision from the draft law that would have set restrictions on out-of-state health coverage Monday.
That was enough to win the pension-reform bill approval by the full Senate and by an Assembly subcommittee, setting up a vote Thursday by the full Assembly before the legislation heads to Gov. Chris Christie’s desk.
As 1,000 union members converged on Trenton with tents and signs for an all-day protest of the bill, state Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Salem, Gloucester, Cumberland, and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, D-Essex, Passaic, agreed to remove the restrictions on out-of-state health care. Party leaders saw the move as necessary to win over skeptical Democrats and at least one skeptical Republican assemblyman, Atlantic County’s Vince Polistina, whose combined votes are seen as vital to passing the legislation.
Polistina, one of the only Republicans to break ranks and voice objections to the reforms supported by Christie, said this weekend that controlling where public employees can get medical care is“flat-out wrong.”
Two hours before a scheduled hearing on the bill, leaders rewrote key language to remove limits on when public workers could seek care at hospitals across state lines.
What remained was a bill that asks public employees to make greater contributions to pensions and benefits, and excludes health care from collective bargaining deals until 2014. The full Senate approved the bill 24-15, with one abstention.
Separate emergency legislation passed Monday would allow state employees to choose between different-tiered health plans with different in-state and out-of-state rules.
Sen. Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic, said he had spoken to Sweeney repeatedly about making the change.
“I had reservations, which I raised with leadership,” Whelan said.
The emergency legislation, which passed the Senate 24-14 on Monday, “was worked on Saturday and Sunday,” he said.
“I am gratified that the leadership in Trenton listened to my concerns and worked through the weekend to address them,” Polistina said. “Given my own experiences with needing out-of-state, specialized care for my children, any provision that would significantly restrict out-of-state health care for public employees and their families was a nonstarter for me.”
However, Polistina said he still has concerns to address before the bill is put up for a full Assembly vote Thursday.
“I remain concerned about the current amendment requiring doctors to sign a certification approving out-of-state care, and have reached out to some doctors in our area to discuss these issues directly with them so that I can completely understand this new legislation before casting my vote,” Polistina said.
Some of the public-worker union members who came to Trenton on Monday struggled to keep pace with news of the fast-moving changes. Many said they had come to protest the out-of-state provision, and brought heartrending tales of choices they made in life-or-death situations.
Frank Pileiro, a teacher in Linwood, described choosing to bring his adopted baby daughter to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to receive treatment for a lifelong blood disorder, one of just nine hospitals to offer that comprehensive treatment.
“Think about the effect on the faces,” he said, gesturing to the crowd. “Not just the dollars.”
By that point, the Senate had already approved the full measure, including the emergency legislation adjusting the out-of-state provision.
But Assembly lawmakers on the budget committee listened to testimony for eight more hours before voting 7-5 to release the bill after 8 p.m.
Kathleen Davis, executive vice president of the Chamber of Commerce of Southern New Jersey, faced a hostile crowd as she told the committee that asking for greater contributions from public employees was a “no-brainer.”
A crowd member interrupted her testimony, shouting an expletive, and was quickly ordered out of the room by state troopers.
Long Beach Township Police Officer Kevin Lyons, who is administrator of the state PBA’s Legal Protection Plan, said he was inside state Senate chambers when the vote was cast. Lyons said the gallery was packed with members of law enforcement.
If the pension reform legislation is passed by the Assembly, Lyons said, it will cost him $9,000 a year.
“We’ll have to see how strong the resolve is and how upset public employees are in November. That’s when they’ll hear from us.” Lyons said. “That’s not a threat, it’s the process. And no, I won’t vote for anyone who voted for this.”
Sweeney, speaking mid-afternoon, revealed how close the unions and Democratic lawmakers came to agreeing on a deal to cap workers’salary contributions for the cheapest health plan before weekend negotiations stalled.
“They were close, but they were miles away,” Sweeney said.
Christie, in a written statement, praised the bipartisan effort that led to the Senate’s passage of the bill.
“As a result of Democrats and Republicans coming together to confront the tough issues, we are providing a sustainable future for our pension and health benefit system, saving New Jersey taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars and securing a fiscally responsible future for our state.”
Police and Firemen Retirement System pension trustee Wayne Hall said he also was at the Statehouse and believed lawmakers were moving too quickly and with too many questions still not answered.
“Even during the hearings, there were questions they had that weren’t answered, and I don’t see how you can vote on something when you don’t have all the answers,” Hall said.
Staff Writer Donna Weaver contributed to this report.
Contact Juliet Fletcher:
609-292-4935
NY Times column - In New Jersey, ‘Shared Sacrifice’ for Public Workers, Not the Rich
By MICHAEL POWELL
Published: June 20, 2011 Trenton
Columnist Page
The gold-domed State Capitol doubled as a divorce court on Monday.
As burly Stephen M. Sweeney, the Senate president, a Democrat and a high official in the ironworkers union, presided over a vote, his putative union brethren — teachers and firefighters and transportation workers — sat in the gallery above and bared their teeth at his every move.
Hi-sssssssssssssssssssssssssss.
It sounded as if a rattlesnake were loose in the room. Which had a hint of truth to it.
Mr. Sweeney, you see, cut a deal with Gov. Chris Christie, the congenitally pugilistic Republican, in which — if the Assembly goes along with it later this week — all the public workers in the state could be forced to swallow large increases in their contributions to their pension and health benefits.
Mr. Sweeney (who is also a freeholder in Gloucester County; Democrat or Republican, politicians rarely run short of paychecks and pensions in New Jersey) agreed to revoke the right of unions to collectively bargain for health care.
Nor is he particularly apologetic. Ask him about the unions’ presidents who howl for his head, and he shrugs. To his mind, he’s exposed a family secret in Trenton: The pensions and health care plans are unsustainable, and union leaders have known it for years and said nothing.
“They lied to their members,” Mr. Sweeney said. “When I say lied, I mean it. They lied.”
That is only a slight overstatement. The labor movement has many laments and many wounds, more than a few self-inflicted. Some pension provisions were undoubtedly piled too high. And union leaders wheedled special deals and remained silent as governors, Republican and Democrat, declined to pay into the pension system.
Labor leaders and politicians, no less than arbitragers and Goldman Sachs partners, relied on magic bubbles to keep it all afloat. The line between illusion and lie grew indistinct.
But Monday offered a through-the-looking-glass moment of a sort, seen across the nation, as middle-class union members became improbable symbols of a recessionary era brought on by Wall Street financiers.
“Shared sacrifice” is a phrase often repeated, though only the latter of the two words is honored. Governor Christie, like the Democrat Andrew M. Cuomo in New York, has played bulldog for the wealthiest, insisting that he will not extend a so-called millionaire’s income tax surcharge.
Bob Master, political director of the Communications Workers of America, District 1, which represents most state workers, points to the inverted math. Under the tax surcharge rescinded in 2010, a couple who made $750,000 would have paid about $4,800 a year, or slightly less than a teacher making $65,000 will be forced to pay in higher health care and pension payments under the new plan.
“From our point of view, we worked very hard over the past 25 years to bargain for our health care plans,” Mr. Master said. “Sweeney is playing right out of the Republican playbook.”
That, it should be said, is a milquetoast denunciation. The teachers’ union is running television ads lambasting the governor and the South Jersey political power broker George Norcross as near-biblical betrayers. And Bill Lavin, representing New Jersey firefighters, wagged his finger at the State Senate last week and promised that “if this bill passes, the only thing that sunsets will be the Democratic Party.”
Where exactly he would hike off to with his members is not clear.
New Jersey’s political scene now calls to mind a flooded cemetery, as long-buried coffins and the skeletons float to the surface, and secrets and dirty deeds are exposed to the sunlight. Every double-dealing alliance, which is to say most of them, is talked of openly.
Mr. Christie, for whom bluster and intimidation are life’s blood, has played a masterful game, constructing a coalition of Republicans, the Essex County executive, Joseph DiVincenzo, and a crucial bloc of South Jersey Democrats who pay obeisance to Mr. Norcross. Mr. Norcross has made millions in the insurance and health businesses and is described (with the utmost respect) as the real boss of Camden County.
As sport, this party-labor divorce is diverting. But as public policy, it is all flying pots and pans. Betrayals are everywhere, and facts are scarce. In the Senate debate on the health plan, members acknowledged having only the foggiest sense of the effect on employees.
“These are made-up numbers, it made no sense and no one could back it up,” State Senator Paul A. Sarlo said.
As Mr. Sarlo is the Senate budget chairman, his candor is not reassuring.
E-mail: powellm@nytimes.com
