America’s CEOs See NJ as One of the Worst States To Do Business. Again.
Posted On05/10/2021 byChief Executive Magazine came out with its 2021 “Best and Worst States for Business,” and New Jersey did not fare well. Again. Obviously, it’s important what CEOs think about a state because when corporations are making decisions about expanding or shrinking their corporate footprint, CEOs have a lot of say in the matter. In this…Read More
Star-Ledger Publishes Sunlight Op-Ed: Teachers Need To Be Told the Truth About Their Pensions
Posted On05/05/2021 byN.J. teachers need to be told the truth: Their pensions are in jeopardy | Opinion Today 9:37 AM as of June 30, 2020, New Jersey had less than 25 cents set aside for every dollar it owed for teachers’ pensions. With such a low funded-level, Brookings makes clear that this amounts to throwing billions of…Read More
US Census: NJ Keeps Its House Seats but Still Could Be Losing Wealth and College Grads to Other States
Posted On04/29/2021 byThe Census Bureau came out with its decennial census count, and it looks like NJ did much better than expected. Contrary to fears that NJ might lose another congressional seat, NJ kept its 12 House seats (down from 15 in 1970). All in all, NJ population grew 5.7% to 9.3 million. This is good news…Read More
NJ Policy Perspective’s “Blueprint” for NJ Aligns with the NJEA and Its Vast Network of Allies
Posted On04/27/2021 byProgressive think-tank New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP) released its policy blueprint for NJ. Sunlight is not going to delve into all the policy proposals. Readers can do that at their leisure. Sunlight highlights two facts about the report: NJPP states that it worked in “close collaboration” with many other NJ progressive groups who make up…Read More
Montclair Parent on Mayor Spiller: “It Doesn’t Take a Rocket Scientist to See the Intense Conflict of Interest”
Posted On04/23/2021 byNorthJersey.com had an excellent news story today describing the efforts of Montclair citizens to change from a mayor-appointed school board to an elected school board. As Sunlight readers know, the catalyst for this grassroots groundswell is the massive and judicially recognized conflict of interest embodied in NJEA President-elect/Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller, whose appointees now constitute…Read More
Fired Montclair BOE Member Gonzalez: NJEA President-Elect/Mayor Spiller Privileges His Union Over the Public Interest
Posted On04/20/2021 byFired Montclair Board of Education (BOE) member Sergio Gonzalez is angry. As he says in his published letter, he is “angry at being removed from the BOE because I dared to represent the interests of our children, rather than a political machine.” Gonzalez was removed by NJEA President-elect/Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller so that Spiller could…Read More
State Pension Report: TPAF Assets Down, Liabilities Up, Funded Ratio at 24.6%
Posted On04/19/2021 byMore bad news on the Teachers’ Pension and Annuity Fund (TPAF), New Jersey’s largest public pension fund currently covering 262,000 active and retired teachers. Last week, we wrote about the Brookings Institute report that both confirmed that TPAF was the worst public pension plan in America and projected that it would become insolvent in the…Read More
NJEA President-Elect/Montclair Mayor Spiller’s Conflict of Interest Spreads to the School Board
Posted On04/16/2021 byThe Montclair Local reports that NJEA President-elect/Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller has appointed three new members to the Montclair school board. That now makes four-of-seven school board members appointed by Spiller, so his appointees are now a majority. Spiller’s judicially-recognized conflict of interest has now spread to the school board. First, Sunlight would like to say…Read More
New Brookings Report: NJ Teachers’ Pension Fund on Path to “Near-Term” Insolvency
Posted On04/14/2021 byIn the wonky world of pensions, a new report by the Brookings Institution made some news because of its rather optimistic take on the fate of America’s public pensions. The authors argue that due to recent reforms, in the long run, most plans are sustainable with relatively modest adjustments. Except for New Jersey’s Teachers’ Pension and…Read More
New Direction Is Now Essentially an NJEA Super PAC with Gov. Murphy as Spokesman
Posted On04/08/2021 bySunlight admits that this is not new news, but because it was released on Christmas Eve-eve, we missed it. But we found the InsiderNJ press release that reveals that Super PAC New Direction New Jersey (NDNJ) is now almost entirely funded by the NJEA. That’s right, from late 2019 to late 2020, the NJEA pumped $6,000,000…Read More