Calls Investment Council News “Historic Breakdown”
Senator Bill Baroni (R-Mercer/Middlesex) today is calling for action to be taken in light of the State Investment Council’s announcement of what amounts to a “historic breakdown” in the state public employee pension system.
The Council announced today that over the last six months, the public employee retirement system has lost $20 billion in value. The retirement fund, as of yesterday, was valued at under $50 billion, which is at less than 57% of its full funded value.
“This historic breakdown of the public employee pension system needs to be addressed, and addressed now. For the last fifteen years, Republican and Democratic Administrations have failed to properly support the system. Our public employees should not bear the burden of political failures,” said Baroni.
Baroni is proposing a two-point plan to begin steps to recover from this breakdown. He is introducing legislation to create a special bi-partisan joint committee to investigate the condition of the state pension fund and to review laws regulating investments. Additionally, Senator Baroni is sending a letter to Attorney General Anne Milgram asking her to investigate the potential of fraud committed in selling securities to the state and where fraud occurred to take steps to recover those losses.
Baroni’s district contains more public employees than any other district in the state.
“The Legislature needs to come together now to restore the health of our pension system. My plan is a simple common sense way to approach the problem that affects our public employees- teachers, police, firefighters, state and local employees,” added Baroni.
“The state is morally responsible to protect and restore the retirement security of our public employees. We now have 20 billion more reasons to act right now.”
Link to Post:
http://www.senatenj.com/index.php/baroni/baroni-calls-for-action-on-state-pension-funds/1593
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June 12, 2008
