If the headlines you wake up to Wednesday morning are about a 2.6% cut in spending in Governor Christie’s proposed budget for FY2012 you have your answer. In reality appropriations are projected to increase .8% but that would be inconvenient for a potential presidential candidate to admit to. So here’s what the Christie administration came up with:
That’s right, the statutory requirement to make 1/7th of the Annual Required Contribution into the pension will hit the fund early. So early that it will be used in the FY2011 pension number with a $0 for FY2012. This little maneuver inflates 2011 appropriations from $29.692 billion to $30.198 billion while decreasing 2012 appropriations from $29.926 billion to $29.42 billion and turns a .8% spending increase (from 29.692 to $29.926) into a 2.6% decrease (from 30.198 to 29.42). Check out page 5 of 18 in the budget summary and see what column the $506 million Pension Contribution item occupies.
Nobody in the private sector could hope to get away with such an amateurish budget dodge. But in the public sector in New Jersey where the media are too often unquestioning note-takers publishing virtual press releases, it’s par for our course.
Burypensions Blog 
Posted by Brian D on February 23, 2011 at 11:22 am
We already know how dumb New Jerseyans are as they are the ones who elected Whitman, McGreevey and Corzine. I personally do not think the Governor is trying to put anything over on the voters. I am more interested in the not raising taxes part than the how much he “cuts” from the budget. But I consider the situation in NJ to be in a graveyard spiral and Christie is merely putting the plane into a shallower bank (temporarily) before the inevitable dive accelerates again into the abyss.
Posted by buddyroo30 on February 23, 2011 at 5:53 pm
Yeah I kind of agree with this. Christie talks about reforming public employee benefits (e.g. require them to pay more for healthcare and into their pensions, etc.) But the elephant in the room seems to be the already accrued benefits, i.e. the $150 billion or so pension money that JB says NJ owes the public workers for services already rendered (and which has not been set aside in the pension fund). How can Christie change this? I don’t see any way as you can’t change a contract that has already been fulfilled I don’t think. So where is this $150 billion gonna come from? Death spiral it is for NJ I think.
Posted by tough love on February 25, 2011 at 2:53 am
I’ve worried about this as well. But pray tell that we may somehow find a way to address the unfunded liability, we should not be distracted from stopping this hole from getting bigger.
To do that we must freeze the Pensions for all of NJ’s CURRENT workers ASAP and switch everyone to a 401k Plan with a match comparable to what Private Sector workers get from their employers. Easy ? Hel* no, but we have no other options.
Posted by muni-man on February 23, 2011 at 11:44 am
JB, I agree that this was a simplistic, albeit minor, stroke of legerdemain to make ‘FY12 vs. ’11 look a little better. But his tying property tax rebates to public workers paying a lot more for healthcare should be pretty popular. He’s painting the Dems into a corner. I think he’s got an excellent chance of seeing the Dems swept out as the majority in Nov. The budget fight is gonna be very interesting but he’s sure got my support. This is LOOONG overdue.
Posted by tough love on February 25, 2011 at 2:57 am
I can’t think of ANYTHING I’d like better than Republicans taking control of the Legislature … and ENDING collective bargaining ala Wisconsin (but WITHOUT excluding safety workers).
Posted by muni-man on February 25, 2011 at 10:44 am
I think the GOP is gonna take over the NJ Legislature in Nov.
They’re gettin’ scared all across the country which can only be GOOD for taxpayers.
Posted by javagold on February 23, 2011 at 7:18 pm
spending is higher……period !
Posted by brooklyn91941 on February 24, 2011 at 3:47 pm
Instead of bluster, why doesn’t he attack the number of towns in the state. Talk about waste!
Posted by burypensions on February 24, 2011 at 3:56 pm
Odd that you mention consolidation since last night I was at a presentation of a group that’s looking to do just that:
http://www.couragetoconnectnj.org/
Not completely convinced that’s the way to go but reining in those authorities and the million-dollar contracts they dispense to connected political donors should be a no-brainer that Christie might look into if he ever gets serious about spending cuts. It should be a crime for cops to get fired while fees to DeCotiis, Fitzpatrick to shepherd though a flawed solar panel project get rubber-stamped.
Posted by tough love on February 25, 2011 at 3:00 am
Once he’s done with the PVSC, I hope he goes after the Bergen County Utilities Authority … a rathole of political patronage.
Posted by business daily on March 21, 2011 at 8:46 am
While we stand behind the numbers we put out 100 the numbers and the graphic itself above are from the Washington Post.