New Report: NJ Teachers Pension Fund Insolvency in 7 Years. But It’s Probably Worse
Posted On06/10/2020 byAs reported in BuryPensions, Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research (CRR) predicts that NJ’s largest public pension fund, the Teachers Pension and Annuity Fund (TPAF), will see its funded ratio decline from 39.2% to 23.2% in the next five years, at which point TPAF will have enough money for just 19 months of pension payments….Read More
NJSpotlight Is Partly Right About NJ’s Meager Rainy Day Funds, Woeful Fiscal Condition
Posted On06/09/2020 byNJSpotlight’s John Reitmeyer does a good job (here) of highlighting NJ’s deficient Rainy Day funds and how NJ has been reduced to borrowing $5 billion to plug a massive gap in the state budget. He also rightly notes that state public pension payments are eating up funds that might otherwise be used to build a…Read More
Updated Teachers Pension Report Sends a Warning for New Jersey
Posted On05/27/2020 byThe State published the actuarial report for the Teachers Pension and Annuity Fund (TPAF), New Jersey’s largest state pension fund. As of June 30, 2019 and using the more accurate measure that includes TPAF’s large unfunded liability (GASB 67), the TPAF had $22.7 billion in assets and $84.2 billion in liabilities, for an unfunded…Read More
Rather than Address His Conflicts of Interest, Spiller Hurls Mud and Falsehoods
Posted On05/05/2020 byWell, SPCNJ’s FACTS have apparently gotten under NJEA Vice President and Montclair mayoral candidate Sean Spiller’s skin. We were surprised to see a Spiller campaign mailer (largely funded by the NJEA) designed as if Spiller were running against SPCNJ for mayor. But Vice President Spiller, SPCNJ is a non-profit research organization not a candidate for…Read More
At PTA Forum, Spiller Wants To Talk About Anything But His Conflicts of Interest
Posted On04/29/2020 byKudos to moderator Jon Fortt who knew his facts about NJEA Vice President/Montclair mayoral candidate Sean Spiller’s conflicts of interest and asked the right questions. Fortt rightly pointed out that a NJ Superior Court ruled that Spiller’s conflict of interest disqualified him from serving on Montclair’s Board of School Estimate (BoSE), so it is a…Read More
NJEA FUNDS SPILLER’S MAYORAL RUN, DEEPENING HIS CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Posted On04/22/2020 byThis post is an addendum to the Sunlight Policy Center of New Jersey’s (SPCNJ) recent report “Councilman Spiller, Mayor Spiller, Governor Spiller?” Thanks to NJLeftBehind for highlighting this aspect of Spiller’s run for mayor of Montclair. The NJEA and Its Allies Are the Main Funders of Spiller’s Mayoral Campaign As detailed in SPCNJ’s previous report, New…Read More
Very Sorry to Report More Bad News on NJ Public Pensions
Posted On04/21/2020 bySPCNJ recognizes that NJ citizens are rightly concentrating on the devastating effects of the Covid19 pandemic. But having studied NJ’s pension issues for many years, SPCNJ believes that NJ citizens should informed of the facts – even if they are unpleasant and unwelcome. The state Division of Pensions and Benefits just released its annual report,…Read More
Not What We Want to Hear, But More Bad News on NJ Public Pensions
Posted On04/14/2020 byWhile most of us are (rightly) concerned with Covid19, the ever-watchful BuryPensions blog has once again sounded the alarm. With our state government understandably consumed with the Covid19 crisis, SPCNJ has been trying to alert NJ citizens that there is trouble ahead. The bond rating agency S&P Global measured the liquidity of several stressed public…Read More
2019 NJ State Debt Report: The Facts
Posted On04/07/2020 bySPCNJ is mindful that this does not seem like the best time to be the amplifier of not-so-good or bad news, but we have been following NJ’s debt profile for many years and believe that the facts should be presented to the public, who deserve to know the truth. No spin, no sugarcoating, just the…Read More
We Will Get Through Covid19 but with Severe Damage to NJ’s Public Pensions
Posted On04/06/2020 byThanks to BuryPensions for alerting SPCNJ to a Bloomberg article by Aaron Brown that highlights the risks that the Covid19-related economic recession and market crash have created for New Jersey’s public-sector pensions. Brown estimates that the value of NJ’s pension assets has declined about 25%, and that the current funding level is in the area of…Read More