TRENTON – Senator Nicholas P. Scutari, co-chair of the Joint Legislative Committee on Public Employee Benefits Reform, made the following statement today before the panel voted to release its final report.
“This past July, Governor Corzine, Senate President Codey, and Assembly Speaker Roberts, convened an unprecedented special session of the State Legislature to address New Jersey’s property tax crisis.
TRENTON – Senator Nicholas Scutari and Assemblywoman Nellie Pou, co-chairs of the Joint Legislative Committee on Public Employee Benefits Reform, today urged legislators, public employees, and interest groups alike to continue supporting the work put forth by their committee, stating that the end of the special session process does not signal and end to reform efforts.
“During our Committee’s deliberations, we discovered certain areas within the State’s pension and health benefits systems that were in dire need of reform,” said Scutari. “While we support fair compensation for State workers, we need to put an end to excessive perks that increase the cost of government on property taxpayers.”
TRENTON – Senator Nicholas P. Scutari and Assemblywoman Nellie Pou, the co-chairs of the Joint Legislative Committee on Public Employee Benefits Reform, today submitted a report to legislative leaders that includes more than 40 specific reform recommendations, many of them aimed at cracking down on abusive practices that have undermined the security and solvency of the state’s public employees’ pensions and health benefits system.
“A key focus of our committee was eliminating the abuses of the retirement system that harm both taxpayers and honest, hard-working public employees,” said Scutari D-Union, Middlesex and Somerset. “To that end, we developed several reform measures designed to curtail the ‘padding’ and ‘tacking’ that create significant unfunded liabilities and threaten the pension system’s financial stability.”
MONROE TOWNSHIP – Senator Nicholas P. Scutari (D-Union) received the “Presidential Award for Outstanding Public Service from the American Trial Lawyers Association of New Jersey” at the organization’s September Board of Governor’s Meeting. The award recognizes Senator Scutari’s efforts to protect New Jersey’s consumers and his contributions to the civil justice system.
“I pride myself on being an advocate for victim’s rights in our civil justice system as well as our criminal justice system,” said Senator Scutari. “I thank President Marc Saperstein and all of ATLA-NJ’s members for this tremendous honor, and I applaud their continuing efforts to preserve the legal rights of all New Jerseyans.”
TRENTON – Senator Nicholas P. Scutari, one of the Joint Legislative Committee on Public Employee Benefits Reform Committee’s co-chairs, issued the following statement in response to testimony provided to the panel by Philip D. Murphy, Chairman of the Governor’s Benefits Review Task Force.
“Having Chairman Murphy here to testify provided us with valuable insight as to how the Task Force arrived at its conclusions, and how those recommendations mesh with what we have learned thus far.
TRENTON – The Joint Legislative Committee on Public Employee Benefits Reform will take testimony from Philip D. Murphy, Chairman of the Governor’s Benefits Review Task Force, on Wednesday.
The task force issued a report in December of 2005 – colloquially known as “The Murphy Report” – which was used by the joint committee as a basis for discussion and analysis of state pensions and benefits as they relate to the property tax problem.
TRENTON – During roundtable discussions held today, the Joint Legislative Committee on Public Employee Benefits Reform heard from numerous public employee unions and local government advocacy organizations during broad-ranging discussions that covered topics from two-tiered benefits systems to pension system funding to flexibility in choosing health care coverage.
The roundtable discussions took place as part of the panel’s continuing examination of pensions and health benefits provided to state, county, municipal, and school employees. The committee’s co-chairs – Senator Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) and Assemblywoman Nellie Pou (D-Passaic) – invited representatives from 14 groups to provide varying perspectives on the pensions and benefits and their impact on property taxpayers.
CLIFTON – The Joint Legislative Committee on Public Employee Benefits Reform has selected Clifton as the site of the first meeting it will conduct for purposes of gathering public comment on pensions and health benefits provided to state, county, municipal, and school district employees.
“We have spent more than a month gathering information from various experts and professionals from across the country,” said Assemblywoman Nellie Pou (D-Passaic), one of the co-chairs of the joint committee. “Now New Jersey taxpayers and residents will have the opportunity to air their ideas and opinions on pensions and benefits reform. With everyone’s collective input, we will work to craft legislation aimed at putting downward pressure on property taxes.”
TRENTON – Senator Nicholas P. Scutari, D-Union, who serves as co-Chairman of the Joint Legislative Committee on Public Employee Benefits Reform released the following statement regarding today’s meeting:
“Today we begin our discussion of health benefits for public employees, and how they figure into the larger picture of benefits reform. The health care crisis is not merely confined to the State Health Benefits Program, nor are its negative effects experienced solely by public employers. As the cost of providing quality health care has skyrocketed, all New Jerseyans, and all Americans are faced with the fear that they will not have adequate insurance coverage. Employers both private and public are straining to meet the needs of their employees, sagging under the duress of ever increasing premiums with no imaginable end in sight.
TRENTON – Senator Nicholas P. Scutari, Co-Chair of the Joint Committee on Public Employee Benefits Reform, read the following opening remarks this morning at the panel’s hearing on the public employee pension system.
“Good morning and welcome to today’s meeting of the Joint Committee on Public Employee Benefits Reform. I look forward to today’s discussion because I believe it will illuminate aspects of both defined contribution and defined benefit plans that are not readily apparent or understood. There is a tendency when talking about pension reform to envision only two possible outcomes: either we embrace the existing system, or we throw it out altogether in favor of something like a 401(k).