He is hated by the police because he wrote the unions a letter promising their pensions would not be touched, in fact he said pensions were sacrosanct. He gained union support prior to election and then he went back on his word.
I know public union pensions are not popular on main street, I know public employees receive benefits unheard of in the private sector, but the fact remains politicians made and agreed to these promises to gain union support for elections.
Many public employees plan their retirements based on certain promises made and implicit when they take the job, it is unfair to change the rules half way through the game.
As a police officer I agree with changing benefits for new hires as fair game, new hires can not miss what they never had or were never promised, but cops with 15 to 20 years on should not have their retirements changed especially when police pensions are healthily funded due to low life expectancy after retirement because of the stressful nature of the job.
The issue in new jersey is Christie lumps the fire, police and teachers pensions together when teachers pensions are the issue. Police and fire pensions are fine and well funded due to several factors such as the fact police and fire unions contribute more into their pensions per check than teachers, and also do not live as long after retirement . Teachers for years contributed a tiny percentage of pay per check into their pensions. Plus there are about 40 thousand cops in the state as opposed to over 100 thousand teachers.
I am a rational person and understand state budgetary shortfalls, however what Christie did was scapegoat police and fire as the main cause of money woes in the state when in fact it has been liberal government out of control spending and policies.
I know I may be flamed for sticking up for public union benefits that many in the private sector abhor, but the whole story needs to be told, police pensions are almost 80% funded, and this is in spite of the fact that Christie has instructed towns and cities and municipalities that it is OK not to make obligatory pension payments to fulfill their pension obligations. A conversation on public union benefits can and should be had and changes can be made but it is not right to make changes half way or more through the game for current workers.
Do you guys realize Christie gave the state police union a sweeter deal when he passed all his reforms than he gave local police? The reason? The state police handles his personal security and he didn’t want to upset the guys protecting him.
Can you name a place in the US where a cop can get 100K a year in Retirement?
You can’t, unless you count the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey where they have guys retiring with 150K a year pensions for life
The pension is technically illegal in New Jersey since it is debt that has not been approved by the tax payers, this has been ruled by the state supreme court.
Politicians in the state have been doing nothing but making promises, the liberals made these same promises as well, but the liberal police unions don’t dare go after their own guys. Just Christie, because he had the cojones to tell them the real situation once his team was able to look at the real numbers after election. Remember Jon Corzine published “cooked” numbers prior the election, once Christie got in the state was in serious financial trouble. So yes, promises made on rosy numbers published by the Corzine administration were invalid and all promises should be called off. You want to be mad at someone, be mad at the democrats from promising you lofty pensions with no realistic ways to pay for them. Remember, your union supported these RATS