Senator Joseph Kyrillos, District 13, said he is appalled by reports that delays by the governor in signing a pension reform bill will cost taxpayers millions of dollars:
“A Star-Ledger article estimates that state and local governments will lose at least $1.42 million in the first year of estimated savings because the governor has dragged his feet and delayed the signing of these fair and thoughtful reforms.
“The losses are almost guaranteed to climb every year going forward because the costs of pension benefits rise as workers get raises and tenure. The $1.42 million is almost certain to be just the first payment on a much larger liability for taxpayers.
“The governor is quoted in the Star-Ledger as saying that the cost of delaying these pension reforms is ‘de minimus, ‘ or too small to be concerned with. I strongly disagree. In the years to come, good programs will be cut or underfunded by tens of millions of dollars because this delay has obligated the state to pay bills that will come due every year for decades.
“Democratic Senators Steve Sweeney and Barbara Buono and my Republican colleagues stood up in the face of stiff opposition to help win bipartisan support for this measure because it would provide tax relief for hard-pressed, middle-class New Jerseyans.
“The compromise was nowhere near as strong as I and many other legislators thought was needed to bring about fairness and fiscal responsibility to this state’s pension system. Yet the governor won’t even sign the compromise measure that won such strong bipartisan support.
“The governor’s actions show he still is not as concerned with the plight of hard-working taxpayers as he is with making sure politically powerful special interest groups are appeased. Taxpayers have just cause to be furious.”
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September 24, 2008
