Real Payroll Data at Odds with Phony Numbers Provided by Governor’s Office
Senator Steven Oroho (R-24) challenged Governor Corzine’s repeated claims that he has eliminated 8,200 State employees and cut the cost of government. In a recent article in The Record, the Governor questioned why nobody has given him credit for those cuts that he has claimed. Senator Oroho has an answer for the Governor: like his false claims that he created thousands of private-sector jobs, his wildly exaggerated claim that he eliminated more than 8,000 government jobs does not reflect reality, and the public knows it.
Data from the State’s payroll system shows that there are approximately 4,000 fewer State employees today than there were four years ago, putting the Governor’s frequently repeated numbers off by a whopping 100%. Even worse, this reduction in force was only made possible through the creation of an expensive buyout program that increased public employee pension payments, putting the State’s already floundering pension system hundreds of millions of dollars further into the red.
Governor Corzine also claims to have eliminated thousands of taxpayer-funded positions at the numerous State authorities, a claim that has never been substantiated. In fact, payroll records show that the number of employees has increased at many State authorities, including the Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency and the grossly mismanaged Waterfront Commission.
An analysis of payroll data shows that the total cost of many authorities’ payrolls has increased from 2006 to 2009, even in instances where the number of employees was reduced. Extremely generous pay increases, especially for patronage employees, has far outstripped any savings that were achieved through minimal staff reductions.
At the Turnpike Authority, for example, Governor Corzine claims to have cut 1,200 employees. Payroll records provided by the Turnpike Authority, however, show a reduction of only 200 employees from 2006 to 2009. At the same time, the total cost of the payroll increased by nearly 8 percent, from $146.5 million to $157.9 million, despite the reduction in the number of employees. Nearly one-third of the Turnpike Authority’s employees received pay raises of over 20% during that three-year period, and more than 200 employees received raises over 40%.
Similarly, the total cost of the payroll at the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority increased by nearly 14% from 2006 to 2009, and the number of employees claimed to be on the payroll by the Governor contradicts the actual payroll data provided by the NJSEA. While data provided by the Governor shows a reduction in employees, actual payroll data shows an increase.
“Governor Corzine has failed at reducing both the size and cost of government, ” said Oroho. “Even at places like the Turnpike Authority, where a few jobs have been shed, the total cost to the tax- and toll-paying public has increased substantially. Regardless of what he claims, it’s clear that government spending continues to run amok under Governor Corzine.”
Oroho noted that Governor Corzine’s false claims of cutting the state payroll are eerily reminiscent of his claims, also proven false, that he helped created private sector jobs in New Jersey. Data provided by the United State Bureau of Labor Statistics demonstrates substantial private-sector job losses in New Jersey, both in the short- and long-term, and shows that New Jersey will be the only state in the nation to end the decade with fewer private-sector jobs than it had at the beginning.
“The Governor recently bragged that he created 13,000 private sector jobs this July, only to have his claims proven wrong when employment data actually showed a net loss of 500 jobs that same month,” added Oroho. “It’s increasingly difficult to trust what Governor Corzine says when so many of his claims have been proven false.”
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February 9, 2010
