Exactly, and this is the huge problem with public pensions. For decades, elected officials promised huge benefits by assuming they could earn very high rates. The people managing pension funds - and not just in NJ, but across the US - simply wrote down their “expected return” numbers with no consideration of risk. In a lot of cases, they continued to make big investments while markets were falling or were about to, simply because “there were big returns”. The problem is worse in the “blue states”, partly because they tended to have big-city pensions and partly because they have more union-negotiated pensions.
See my previous post on the subject:
That average annual return is calculated including the 2009 crash.
This is essentially my exact point. Additionally, ceteris paribus, states pay less for insurance plans than private employers, since (1) they generally have a lot more lives, and (2) they can effectively set their own rates via legislation and enforced monopolies.
I’ve asked a friend to pull the exact cost of the NJ state employees’ health plan.
This, I think, is a more germane point - but there’s no reason that states cannot require themselves to properly fund their pension plans a la ERISA. The taxpayers just don’t care enough to make them.
There’s a flyer in my daughter’s bookbag today.
Her school will lose 85% of our state funding under the current budget proposal.
I reiterate:
FUCK YOU GOVERNOR CHRISTIE.
You miserable bastard. You prick. You dumb slime. You stupid, useless, Republican ideologue. You cannot raise taxes on most middle class voters in this state and attempt to fuck up our schools at the same time. This will not attract businesses to this state.
And fuck the Conservatives in this thread for defending tax hikes on the middle class and cuts to the public schools. You got your lousy war on Iraq and your handouts to the banking industry. The rest of us are apparently going to spent our blood, sweat and tears paying for it.
You all suck.
Your state is reaping what many previous governments, mostly Democratic, have sown. You should be far more mad at the situation the Dems have put you in, as they’ve owned the statehouse for many years, and most of the worst budget damage has happened under Corzine.
I know you won’t because you brainwashed by the NJ teachers’ union or similar sources. So be it.
Remember, Bush lied, people died. No blood for oil. Etc etc.
I am a New Jersey State Employee and don’t believe the budget problem was caused by our salary or benefits liked Christie is stating. For quite a few years the state has NOT been contributing their share to the pension plan. Thanks to that lack of funds the amount on hand has not increased due to compounding.
Here is a copy if my latest paystub
I am already paying a portion of my salary for my health benefits and have given up work days which is why it shows 9 days instead of 10.
I’m off to work now. Will post when I get home.
Linky no work.
Fuck you.
People like you spend your lives whining about teachers and then wonder why the teaching profession is held in such low esteem in many parts of the country. You do shit like that and wonder why the school system is such a mess in much of the country and why our kids drop out or leave school with minimal skills.
You wouldn’t last five minutes in a classroom full of sixth graders.
The teachers are the goddamned reason the school system in this state works. We have the highest high school graduation rate in the entire fucking country.
In the meantime my daughter and her friends will literally pay the price for Bush’s lousy war and cuts in state aid as a result.
The school board met last night. They’re cutting half a dozen teacher’s aids, not replacing two teachers who are retiring in the 3rd and 4th grades and cutting out orchestra and Spanish.
So the third and fourth graders will have 25 kids in a classroom instead of 17.
Nice work governor asshole.
And someone somewhere who makes $400,000 a year, so much fucking money I don’t what the hell you do with it, that overpaid little person will reap the benefits of a few more pennies in his pocket.
:rolleyes:
I voted for the losing third party candidate as I hate Corzine and did not trust Christy further then I could throw him.
Christy sucks, Corzine sucks, McGreevey sucked. Who knew Wittman would start looking good after a while.
However, Christy did inherit this mess from mostly Corzine. I don’t like how he is fixing things, but he has to cut money somewhere. I can think of plenty of places besides education, but wherever he makes the cuts people will bitch and complain.
The economy sucks, the irresponsibility of past Governors really sucks.
I agree that Corzine was not a great governor nor was McGreevey Mr. “I’m leaving office because I’m being blackmailed by my lover” particularly better either.
But there are better ways to handle a budget crisis than to punish kids with larger classrooms and spend your time in office ranting against teachers. I don’t want a governor who feels compelled to pick a fight with some of hardest working people in this state.
That’s one of the stupidest fucking things you can do. I don’t want people who are thinking of teaching our kids that the governor is not on their side.
There are also better ways to deal with a budget crisis than to tell one group of people (people who pay property taxes) that their taxes can rise while telling another group of people (people who make over $400,000 a year) that their taxes can fall.
Christie has only been in office a few months. So far he completely sucks at it.
Well, Lav, here’s what the AC Press says about it.
So quit whining and man up. Either do your job, or quit and find something else to do. And as for the tax, I notice that the Dems could have easily extended it before Christie took office, but they chose not to, probably for political reasons. I don’t see you blaming them, probably because, as a NEA member, you are forbidden by blood oath to ever criticize a Democrat. But now that there’s some adult supervision in Trenton, perhaps things will pick up for your state in a few years.
PS Could I survive in a class of 6th graders? Not for 10 minutes.
This would seem to be the right one. I reported the post with a link to the right URL.
Huh. I figured he’d redact it or something, but no, he’s got his salary posted right there on the interwebs.
Now I kinda wanna post mine, but inflate it to some ridiculous seven-figure number.
Reminder:
Restricted language in the Pit - The BBQ Pit - Straight Dope Message Board
Gfactor
Snuggly Kitten Forum Moderator
Fixed.
I guess I struck a nerve…
Do you have a cite that says the property tax increase doesn’t apply to people making $400k+ a year? Unless this is written in the law, aren’t they being hit by a tax increase as well?
Again, you seem to conveniently forget that the $400k “tax cut” is actually a scheduled phasing out of a tax increase implemented a year prior. Did you have your taxes increased last year? If you did, and were told that it was temporary, don’t you think it had better be temporary?
Again, this bizarre assumption that people who make over $400k don’t own property. 
Got any statistics to back this up?
In that article:
Shit, Lavender’s getting a 4.3% pay increase ($2,150 on a salary of $50k) while bitching about a $800 tax increase? Isn’t that a (pre-tax) net gain of $1,350?
We should all be so lucky.
(And what is a “longevity increase”? And how much is it? And where can I find one of those?)
Lavender, are you willing to give up your one-time pay increase to save these programs? Have you made your desire known?
This is why I think unions are about the worst thing to happen to the American economy since oil cartel shenanigans. They get fat and lazy, whine when they don’t get exactly what they want, and expect their allies on the left to take care of them forever.
The economy in NJ has been crushed since the financial crisis. They pay about the highest taxes around, insurance costs a fortune, and their public servants have been insulated (to this point) from feeling the effects of the tough times. As the piece I linked to pointed out, the private sector has been taking it in the short hairs for years, with RIFs, wage freezes, etc. But the NJ NEA and the ruling Democratic party of NJ have been engaged in this mutual suicide pact for years, with their current crisis the result.