URGENT LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
Assault on public employee pensions and benefits

In the last two days, a number of New Jersey legislators have mounted a significant assault on public employees’ pensions and benefits. While a number of proposals were introduced in the Senate on Thursday, there are three which are of particular concern to NJEA and its members. They are:

• S-1962: A requirement proposed by Sens. Barbara Buono (D-18) and Thomas Kean Jr. (R-21) that school employees work a minimum of 30 hours per week to qualify for participation in the Public Employees Retirement Fund (PERS) or the Teachers’ Pension and Annuity Fund (TPAF). Under the legislation, future school district employees who work fewer than 30 hours per week would be placed in the New Jersey’s newly established 401(k)-style defined contribution pension plan. This bill would significantly impact education support professionals such as cafeteria workers, bus drivers, paraprofessionals, and others, including some teachers. Additionally, current members working fewer than the minimum number of hours who have any break in service may lose their eligibility to participate in PERS or TPAF upon their return to service. Members who are excluded from PERS or TPAF also would not earn years of service credit in order to qualify for post-retirement medical benefits.

• S-1969: A requirement proposed by Sens. Barbara Buono (D-18) and Christopher Bateman (R-16) that members who hold multiple positions choose only one job for pension purposes. This would severely diminish the pensions of members who hold two or more part-time jobs to make ends meet rather than one full-time position.

• S-1964: A change in the pension formula proposed by Sens. Stephen Sweeney (D-3) and Kevin J. O’Toole (R-40) for future employees to use the average of an employee’s five highest years of earnings when calculating individual pensions. Currently the formula uses the three highest years. Under the new formula, the pensions of FUTURE employees would be lower than they would be under the current formula.

An additional bill (S-1965), proposed by Sens. Nicholas P. Scutari (D-22) and Joseph Kyrillos, Jr. (R-13), which denies health insurance benefits to part time employees excludes school district employees. NJEA will continue to monitor that legislation closely.

Each of the proposed bills would diminish benefits that NJEA members have fought to obtain and enhance since the first pension system was established for teachers more than a century ago. While legislators claim that they must take action to deal with abuse of the pension system, the “solutions” they have crafted threaten to harm our hard-working members instead.

NJEA is strongly opposed to these changes and is devoting significant resources to fighting this legislation. We are preparing a media and lobbying blitz to target the lawmakers behind this legislation and to make our case that the Legislature needs to “Target Abuse, Not People Who Work.”