| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
8-29-08 'Newly hired teachers benefit from Corzine delay'
STAR LEDGER "Thousands of new teachers can receive the generous pension benefits New Jersey lawmakers voted to scale back in June because Gov. Jon Corzine hasn't signed the controversial reform bill into law..."
Newly hired teachers benefit from Corzine delay by Dunstan McNichol and Josh Margolin/The Star-Ledger Thursday August 28, 2008, 6:28 PM Thousands of new teachers can receive the generous pension benefits New Jersey lawmakers voted to scale back in June because Gov. Jon Corzine hasn't signed the controversial reform bill into law. About 10,000 public school teachers are hired in a typical year, according to state pension reports, and most begin their jobs at the beginning of the school year. Corzine's delay also means other newly hired state and local government workers will be eligible for fatter pensions. State officials had no estimate how many have been hired since June. The reforms, adopted over heated opposition from the state's most influential public employees' unions, would eliminate the Lincoln's Birthday state holiday, raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 and public employees from using time worked in other states to reach the 25 years of employment needed to qualify for lifetime health benefits from New Jersey. While no one knows the total cost of the delay, state and local governments could lose at least $1.42 million in 2011 -- the first year of estimated savings. Supporters of the reforms said they would cut retirement costs by $300 million over 15 years. "That's a shame," said William Dressel, executive director of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities. "If the overall intent was to reduce the burden on the property taxpayer and run government like a business, clearly a businessman would be very cognizant of the effective date and understand the implications and hurry up the pen a little bit." Corzine said he held off on signing the bill after the New Jersey Education Association teachers union asked for time to notify teachers about the provision that precludes them from counting years worked outside New Jersey to get state funded health benefits after retirement. "I don't think it makes any sense to not give people the chance to understand what this means to their lives," he said, characterizing the cost of the delay as "de minimus." "Frankly these pension reforms don't produce dramatic savings." he added. "They're important steps in the right direction and I'm supportive of them but ... this is a very small piece of that (total savings)." NJEA President Joyce Powell confirmed the union asked Corzine to delay so they could inform teachers this was their last shot to claim out-of-state service for retirement health benefits. "Since it happened in June we wouldn't have had any way of telling people," she said. "So we had to have the beginning of the school year to inform people. Since June, about 400 people -- including teachers, state workers and municipal employees -- have applied to have their out-of-state time count, said Treasury spokesman Tom Bell. State officials have no estimate of how much this would cost. NJEA and the Communications Workers of America, the state's largest public employees union, say they spent more than $1 million in June for a campaign to derail the reform. It eventually passed the Legislature after 11 p.m. on the session's last day, June 23, after hanging one vote short of passage in the Assembly for more than three hours. Under its provisions, the new limits on pension benefits affect anyone who is hired after its effective date -- the first day of the second month after it is signed into law. If Corzine signed the measure when it was adopted in June, the new restrictions would have affected any teacher hired after August 1. Instead, the higher retirement age and other provisions now will not take effect until at least Oct. 1. "It's a disappointment," Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex), a prime sponsor of the reform legislation. "We knew going in he (Corzine) was lukewarm to it." Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) said he was "surprised that there wouldn't be a way to find those teachers and provide them with proper notification." Frank Belluscio, spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association, said the reforms were first recommended by a pension reform task force more than two years ago. "They were needed then and they are needed now," he said. The state's public retirement system is underfunded by about $29 billion
STAR LEDGER "Thousands of new teachers can receive the generous pension benefits New Jersey lawmakers voted to scale back in June because Gov. Jon Corzine hasn't signed the controversial reform bill into law..."
Newly hired teachers benefit from Corzine delay by Dunstan McNichol and Josh Margolin/The Star-Ledger Thursday August 28, 2008, 6:28 PM Thousands of new teachers can receive the generous pension benefits New Jersey lawmakers voted to scale back in June because Gov. Jon Corzine hasn't signed the controversial reform bill into law. About 10,000 public school teachers are hired in a typical year, according to state pension reports, and most begin their jobs at the beginning of the school year. Corzine's delay also means other newly hired state and local government workers will be eligible for fatter pensions. State officials had no estimate how many have been hired since June. The reforms, adopted over heated opposition from the state's most influential public employees' unions, would eliminate the Lincoln's Birthday state holiday, raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 and public employees from using time worked in other states to reach the 25 years of employment needed to qualify for lifetime health benefits from New Jersey. While no one knows the total cost of the delay, state and local governments could lose at least $1.42 million in 2011 -- the first year of estimated savings. Supporters of the reforms said they would cut retirement costs by $300 million over 15 years. "That's a shame," said William Dressel, executive director of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities. "If the overall intent was to reduce the burden on the property taxpayer and run government like a business, clearly a businessman would be very cognizant of the effective date and understand the implications and hurry up the pen a little bit." Corzine said he held off on signing the bill after the New Jersey Education Association teachers union asked for time to notify teachers about the provision that precludes them from counting years worked outside New Jersey to get state funded health benefits after retirement. "I don't think it makes any sense to not give people the chance to understand what this means to their lives," he said, characterizing the cost of the delay as "de minimus." "Frankly these pension reforms don't produce dramatic savings." he added. "They're important steps in the right direction and I'm supportive of them but ... this is a very small piece of that (total savings)." NJEA President Joyce Powell confirmed the union asked Corzine to delay so they could inform teachers this was their last shot to claim out-of-state service for retirement health benefits. "Since it happened in June we wouldn't have had any way of telling people," she said. "So we had to have the beginning of the school year to inform people. Since June, about 400 people -- including teachers, state workers and municipal employees -- have applied to have their out-of-state time count, said Treasury spokesman Tom Bell. State officials have no estimate of how much this would cost. NJEA and the Communications Workers of America, the state's largest public employees union, say they spent more than $1 million in June for a campaign to derail the reform. It eventually passed the Legislature after 11 p.m. on the session's last day, June 23, after hanging one vote short of passage in the Assembly for more than three hours. Under its provisions, the new limits on pension benefits affect anyone who is hired after its effective date -- the first day of the second month after it is signed into law. If Corzine signed the measure when it was adopted in June, the new restrictions would have affected any teacher hired after August 1. Instead, the higher retirement age and other provisions now will not take effect until at least Oct. 1. "It's a disappointment," Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex), a prime sponsor of the reform legislation. "We knew going in he (Corzine) was lukewarm to it." Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) said he was "surprised that there wouldn't be a way to find those teachers and provide them with proper notification." Frank Belluscio, spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association, said the reforms were first recommended by a pension reform task force more than two years ago. "They were needed then and they are needed now," he said. The state's public retirement system is underfunded by about $29 billion
