Dear Mayor:

The Joint Legislative Committee on Public Employee Benefits Reform has released its final report and recommendations to the Legislature. The Joint Committee was charged with identifying proposals that would ultimately lead to structural reform to control the costs of providing pension, healthcare and other benefits.

The Joint Committee released a total of forty-one recommendations which cover pension benefits, health benefits and other benefits, encompassing sick and vacation leave, pension loans and dual office holding.

Throughout the summer months and leading up to the Joint Committee’s report of findings, the League and its Affiliate Groups have testified at all scheduled special hearings. We repeatedly implored the Joint Committee to recognize that all pension systems are not equal and to achieve any semblance of reform, they must address the most expensive local government pension system….PFRS.  This has not occurred to any appreciable degree in our estimation.   Among the concerns we raised were the financial impact of PFRS benefits upon the local property tax, state mandates, binding arbitration, the anachronistic enrollment threshold for PERS and TPAF, the fiscal fiasco wrought by early retirement programs, etc.   Our COPE report was widely distributed and formed the basis of much of the League’s testimony.

Presently, we do not know what form these recommendations will take, i.e. one omnibus legislative bill or several individual bills. However, the League and representatives of the nineteen Affiliate Groups will convene next week to respond to the Joint Committee’s forty-one recommendations.

The full report and executive summary is available on League’s website at: http://www.njslom.org/tax_sessions.html.