Pension Robbery
As I’ve said before, one of the biggest challenges facing Governor Christie is the legal corruption that the Democrats and Republicans have set up in Trenton. Just a day or two into his term it looks like he is setting his sights on this disgusting practice
Governor Christie on Thursday promised to eliminate a number of New Jersey boards and commissions where political appointees are then able to pad their public pensions, in some cases mostly for attending monthly meetings.
“These were pension plays — gifts to the people who lost the election, to keep them in a pension system that you and I and our children are going to pay for. I think the time for that is over,” Christie said at a news conference in Trenton.
Christie was referring to the outgoing administration’s final days, when Gov. Jon Corzine appointed dozens of Democratic aides and department heads to government boards overseeing such professions as marriage therapists, contact-lens dispensers and veterinarians. Some of those boards pay members at least $100 a month to attend a meeting, and another $50 to review agendas.
All of these little jobs add up to qualify these political appointees for lifetime pensions…pensions that we, the taxpayers, are on the hook for. And these pensions add up to real money
The pension fund is $30 billion short of its obligation.
Repeat that number. $30 billion. Much like how the Federal Government has us all on the hook for the trillions in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae obligations which they now conveniently place “off the budget” so no one sees the number too often, so we too here in NJ have this lovely amount on top of our other obligations that Trenton has signed us up for. Remember how Corzine proposed balancing the budget by allowing municipalities to “defer” pension obligations? And now he leaves office and sticks us with more for his cronies.
As Christie correctly says
“This is stuff that’s been done by previous governors and previous administrations to keep their friends in the pension system in order to accumulate the number of years they need to get the maximum amount of payoff they can get from the taxpayers,” Christie said. “It’s wrong. It’s wrong when Republicans do it. It’s wrong when Democrats do it. In the end we are fleecing our own state.”
Damn straight.
Let’s hope Christie keeps this up and eliminates as many of these positions and scams as possible.
Nanny State, People, Politics | Mr. Bingley | 
January 22, 2010 7:46 am
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Amen.
Wow, it’s like California-East!
It’s more like more than 200, not dozens, including this doozie: the former head of the state Labor Department was appointed to a board that oversees cosmetics. I know the guy’s gay (one of McGreevey’s boy toys) but this isn’t a really funny joke.
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