N.J. paying fees to firm employing Mary Pat Christie, report says

TRENTON — New Jersey has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees to a Wall Street investment firm in the three years since Gov. Chris Christie said he was terminating all investments with the company, International Business Times reported today. That same firm, Angelo, Gordon & Co., hired Christie’s wife, Mary Pat Christie, as a… Read the rest of this entry »

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Moody’s: New Jersey’s Pension Funds Could Run Dry in Just 10 Years

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Analysis: Partisan and Labor Politics Drive Battle Over Health-Benefits Reform

As Gov. Chris Christie’s Pension and Health Benefits Study Commission wrestles with the issue of how much public employees should pay toward their health insurance, New Jersey’s public-employee unions are focused not only on how much they will pay, but also on making sure they win back the right to collective bargaining on healthcare issues. It… Read the rest of this entry »

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Christie’s Pension Overseer Resigns

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Analysis: Would an Elected Comptroller Solve NJ’s Pension Crisis?

New York State comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli. New York and New Jersey are high-cost states that share a regional economy, high state and local government payrolls and benefit plans, a wealthy tax base, and a scandal-ridden Port Authority. What the two states don’t share is a massive pension crisis and the poor bond ratings that go… Read the rest of this entry »

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Tab for Unfunded Retiree Benefits Pegged at $30,000 per Household

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Christie Town Hall in Long Branch on Tuesday August 19

Govenor Chris Christie at his Belmar Town Hall on July 31

Governor Chris Christie will continue his Jersey Shore “No Pain, No Gain” tour with a stop in Long Branch next Tuesday at the Long Branch Amphitheater on McKinley Ave. 

The event is scheduled to start at 3PM.   The Governor’s Office requests RSVPs at  [email protected] .

Christie was rained out in Long Branch on July 15th.

Christie has been informing the public and about the pension and benefit crisis the State is facing during his summer tour.  He promises to announce a plan for pension and benefit reform sometime in the early fall.

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Christie will hold Town Hall Meeting in Belmar, Weds, July 30

The next stop on Governor Chris Christie’s “No Pain, No Gain” tour on the Jersey Shore will be held in Belmar next Wednesday, 3PM, at the  Huisman Gazebo, 500 Ocean Ave.

Christie kicked off the tour in Long Beach Island on Tuesday where he said he would be proposing a plan to save New Jersey from bankruptcy by the end of this summer. The work-in-progress plan will focus on reducing pensions and benefits for public workers.

“There are going to be some really difficult things,” Christie said. “There’s not a lot of places left to do things except to look at a whole different variety of ways to reduce benefits or to increase contributions by employees.”

Residents can RSVP for the Belmar event to [email protected]

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Analysis: Christie Administration Eyes Shift to ‘Hybrid’ Pension System

Analysis: Christie Administration Eyes Shift to ‘Hybrid’ Pension System (via NJSpotlight)

While Gov. Chris Christie is still several weeks away from announcing his proposal to overhaul New Jersey’s pension and retiree health benefits system, his plan seems most likely to center on a “hybrid” model that would give current employees…

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Governor Christie’s Remarks On Cutting Pension Payments To Balance The Budget

Governor Christie: I have made the decision that we are not going to blindside our students, we are not going to blindside our seniors, our higher education institutions or those who rely on the safety net the state provides to balance the budget with only six weeks left in the fiscal year. So you have to make choices and we are making them. We’re choosing to be responsible in terms of the way we fund these critical priorities that matter to the people of the state. And we are choosing not put at risk those programs that I mentioned and those services that the people of the state rely upon, especially on such extraordinarily short notice. I’d love to give people tax relief. I’d love to also be able to fund programs that are priorities and that matter a great deal to me and to the people of this state. But until we decide to be adults and deal with the problem we know we have we’re not going to be able to do that. And so today I’m doing what I need to do to fulfill my constitutional obligation to balance a budget. Today I’m going to pledge to make the payments that we need to make to not dig the hole any deeper. But in a time when we’re confronted with this type of challenge I cannot also pay for all the sins of my predecessors, and so we’re going to do this now. We’re going to continue to try to get better as we move forward but you’re going to continue to hear from me and you will hear from me soon with specifics on the way we need to change the pension and the health benefit system. I’ve been saying over the course of the last number of months that come Fiscal Year ’16 New Jersey is going to be paying more for health benefit costs for retirees than we pay for active employees. If there is any greater symbol for how untenable the system has become I don’t know what it is. And so we need to deal with this problem and we need to deal with it directly. I will fix the problems that have been foist upon us today. But I’m going to need cooperation from the Legislature and elected officials across the state to deal with this problem going forward.

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