Stuff in the ‘Pension and Benefit Crisis’ Category
NJBIA’s Siekerka Is on Target: Gov. Murphy’s $4.9 billion for Pensions Is Throwing Good Money after Bad
Posted On09/04/2020 byNew Jersey Business and Industry Association (NJBIA) president Michelle Siekerka penned an op-ed in NJ Spotlight today that made several excellent points. Among them: Cut the fiscal year 2021 public employee pension contribution: “we should remind ourselves that whatever dollar figure is settled on will still go toward a broken and unsustainable system, which will…Read More
The NJEA Hits the Trifecta with Murphy’s Budget; the Rest of NJ, Not So Much
Posted On08/26/2020 byGovernor Murphy presented a nine-month FY2021 budget yesterday that props up state government spending by issuing bonds and raising taxes. As analyzed by NJ Spotlight’s Jon Reitmeyer, there is virtually no state government belt-tightening: state spending will “still top $40 billion for a traditional 12-month fiscal year … even as he is projecting steep revenue…Read More
Murphy Wins at Supreme Court but NJ’s Future Generations Lose
Posted On08/14/2020 byCongratulations, Governor Murphy. Unsurprisingly, the NJ Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that you get to borrow up to $9.9 billion to cover budget gaps due to shortfalls and costs related to COVID19. This is good news for NJ’s most powerful special interests, the public sector unions, who are Murphy’s political supporters. Unfortunately, this is bad news…Read More
New BEA Analysis Confirms NJ Public Pensions as Worst-Funded in Nation
Posted On07/24/2020 byAnd this was before COVID19 hit. The US Bureau of Economic Analysis did a laudable analysis of defined benefit pension plans across the country. BEA used a constant set of methods and assumptions so that in looking at the various plans, BEA was comparing apples to apples. Importantly, BEA used a 4% discount rate for…Read More
Worrisome Sign: Pension Assets Drop to $75 Billion, Funded Ratio to 35 Percent
Posted On07/23/2020 byNJ’s Division of Investment provided an update on pension assets. As of April 30, the assets had dropped to $75 billion from $81 billion, or -8.1%, due to the decrease in the market value of the investments. With the system’s liabilities at $212 billion, this means that the funded ratio dropped from 38.4 % to…Read More
Success of New Healthcare Law Depends on Persuading Teachers: Will the NJEA Deliver?
Posted On07/02/2020 byAfter months of behind-the-scenes negotiation and to widespread acclaim, Governor Murphy signed into law S-2273/A-20, a healthcare reform bill that promises to reduce the cost of health benefits for both teachers and taxpayers. This widely praised new law aims to reduce school district (and thus taxpayer) costs by $640 million per year and teacher costs…Read More
Truth In Accounting: If NJ Borrows $5 Billion, It Won’t Be Able to Pay It Back
Posted On06/11/2020 bySheila Weinberg, CEO of Truth In Accounting, wrote an excellent op-ed in NJSpotlight (here). Weinberg cautions that if NJ borrows $5 billion to plug its current budget gap, it will be unlikely that NJ can generate the surpluses needed to pay the loan back in three years (the term of Federal Reserve loans). This is…Read More
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
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