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Package is tied to state budget
Friday, June 13, 2008 • BY JOE DONOHUE AND JOSH MARGOLIN • Star-Ledger Staff

A legislative committee gave initial approval yesterday to a package of bills revamping public worker benefits, but a final deal on an overall state budget package remained elusive.

The fringe-benefit changes face stiff opposition from powerful state worker unions, which rallied more than 500 members outside the Statehouse during yesterday's vote.

"You have drawn your line in the sand, and we're here to draw ours," said Joyce Powell, president of the New Jersey Education Association, which represents more than 200,000 school workers.

Legislative leaders see the benefit changes as essential to agreement on a new state budget, al though the Corzine administration disagrees. State officials privately said they now hope for a final budget agreement by Monday, which would mean a floor vote June 23. That's later than they had hoped, but still a week before the constitutional deadline.

The noisy rally and a highly visible lobbying effort by the NJEA, the Communications Workers of America and several other unions were not enough to stop the Senate State Government Committee from approving the benefit changes in a bipartisan vote. The six-bill package now heads to the full Senate.

Among other things, the bills would eliminate pensions and health insurance for part-time workers, end multiple pensions, extend from three to five years the earnings average on which pensions are set, and end pension credits for public jobs held in other states.

During a joint interview in the Senate chamber, the majority and minority leaders said they have agreed to provide an equal number of votes to pass the reform bills, ideally bringing the final tally to a veto-proof 28 or more. "We want to have an equal number on the bill," Sen. Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said.

"Our goal is to have strong bipartisan cooperation on this bill," Sen. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Union) said.

The bipartisan backing has ob vious political benefits: neither party can use the vote against the other at election time, and individual members who have high numbers of state workers in their districts can be allowed to vote against the measures.

Lawmakers of both parties were upset in late 2006 when the governor blocked similar changes in deference to contract talks. Said Sweeney: "We were working towards a common goal and the rug got pulled out."

Sean Darcy, Corzine's spokesman, said while the governor now is considering the changes, he doesn't view them as tied to a final budget deal. But Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex), who chairs the Senate budget committee, said the proposed budget would be a "fraud" unless the Legislature approves the package, which she said would save an estimated $300 million over the next 15 years. The savings, she said, will help pay for an early retirement program being sought by Corzine in his budget.

Carla Katz, president of Local 1034 of the CWA, echoed other union leaders by saying the legislation would violate contracts negotiated last year with the governor. She also said the changes are too broad and would have a devastat ing financial impact on thousands of part-time workers.

Powell said the teacher's union would use "every resource at our disposal" to try to block the bills, which she dismissed as an attempt to make public workers "pawns and scapegoats for many of the Legislature's mistakes and missteps of the past."

Lawmakers craft bills to limit public worker benefits

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