Stuff in the ‘Pension and Benefit Crisis’ Category
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
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
Looks Like Some Good News on Sweeney-NJEA Healthcare Deal
Posted On03/17/2020 bySenate President Steve Sweeney has introduced a new healthcare bill based on the recent deal between Sweeney and NJEA President Marie Blistan. The bill appears to take notice of the recent ProPublica investigation into excessive and wasteful out-of-network reimbursements in the state-run health plans for school employees (as covered by SPCNJ’s “Unnoticed $500,000,000 Scandal Is…Read More
Will the NJEA/Sweeney Healthcare Deal End the Out-of-Network Payments Scandal?
Posted On03/10/2020 byThe NJEA and Senator Sweeney claim the new deal will save $1 billion. SPCNJ hopes these savings are real but like everyone else we will have to wait for a detailed breakdown before passing judgment. But SPCNJ will ask one question: will out-of-network payments be capped (like CWA’s were) or will the $500 million scandal…Read More