Three inconvenient truths about insolvent NJ public employee pension funds

IBT-Pension-Collapse#1.?? The pension funds are hopelessly? insolvent.?? They are run as a Bernie Madoff scheme where money from? younger workers is not invested,?but is instead immediately?paid out? to current retirees.

#2.?? Article 8, Section 2 of N.J.? Constitution says?NJ taxpayers can NOT be forced to bail out insolvent? pension funds, because those pensions were never approved by voters.

#3.? While Governor Christie?and the unions are correct in blaming SOME?of the?pension problems on long gone politicians–Republicans and Democrats–that ?NJ pension funds are broke because they were set up to run as Bernie Madoff schemes since the 1980’s.?? This is because many? employees (a) collect pensions as early as age 52, and (b) pay peanuts into? pension funds with low-pay, part-time jobs for most of their careers, but
collect based on high-pay political jobs they got in the last three years? before they retired.?? Simple solution:? ?No pension? payments until age 66, and cap pensions at $50,000.?? Why won’t? any?Democrat or Republican leader?say so?

By the way, I first stumbled into people gaming the pension funds?when I was a councilman n Atlantic City in the 1980’s.?? I notice that several lifeguards were kept on payroll during most of the winter when the beaches were obviously closed.??? I was told they were “painting the boats”.??? Later, I learned that summer lifeguards were put on the payroll year round during the three years before they retired to “juice up” their pensions.???? Since then, I learned that most public employees with some political influence or knowledge of the system “juice up” their pensions one way or another in last three years to collect far more than they paid in.?? Seth Grossman, Executive Director.

2 thoughts on “Three inconvenient truths about insolvent NJ public employee pension funds”

  1. Beautifully said. We have to keep pushing as hard as we can to educate ourselves and others to truth in every venue. Maybe we can start online petitions, one at a time so as to get a better result, then move on to the next issue.

    For example; “We demand that (xyz official/mayor/freeholderschool board member) produce on the city/county website all job descriptions, salaries, health care premiums (total for the employee as well as the fraction paid for by the employee) and projected pensions (as well as amount contributed to the pension by the employees) . We make this demand since accountability is our right, not a privilege, since we are paying the bills”

    Then submit the petition, and when the demand is not fulfilled after say 2 weeks, then submit letters to the editor, and make phone calls to local radio shows asking why this issue has not been rectified.

    Thank you Seth. A lot more of us have to get active and do something, not just complain.

Leave a Reply to Douglas Miller

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top