Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean issued the following statement concerning the ratification of a labor agreement designed to end union opposition to the governor’s plan to defer a wage increase for public employees for a year and require 10 furlough days. In return, the governor agree to give workers a 7 percent raise in fiscal 2011, provide seven extra paid days off, add a paid holiday, and vow not to lay off or furlough any workers in fiscal 2011. Fiscal 2011 begins on July 1, 2010:
“The governor did not need to negotiate these costly, election-year concessions, ” Senator Kean said. “The courts had upheld his right to furlough workers as he originally proposed. The governor traded a plan that would have saved money during a recession for one that may very well slow the state’s recovery.
“This new agreement seeks to tie the hands of the next governor, who will need every tool possible to bring future budgets into balance. Estimates are that the state will have an $8 billion to $10 billion deficit next year.
“I urged the governor to come forward now with his best estimate of next year’s deficit, and to explain how he intends to close it now that he has greatly reduced the state’s options if this recession continues.
“This agreement, apparently hastily concluded to ensure that Vice President Biden would not have to face picket lines at the governor’s campaign fundraising event, was the wrong thing to do for the citizens of New Jersey.”
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April 13, 2011
