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TRENTON – A bill sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney which would propose a constitutional amendment to the voters to prohibit the State from raiding any funds established through an assessment on employee’s wages to protect workers in need was approved by the Assembly Labor Committee today.

“The historic practice of raiding employee benefits funds to shore up budget shortfalls has left many of these funds unstable, and unable to meet the needs of New Jersey’s hard-hit workers in their time of greatest need,” said Senator Sweeney, D-Gloucester, Cumberland and Salem. “We cannot continue this brand of robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul politics in the State. New Jersey’s taxpayers deserve better than the same old shell game of funneling funds away from safety net programs to put off the hard decisions we were elected to make.”

TRENTON – A measure sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney and Senator Thomas Kean H. Kean, Jr., which would prevent worker and employer contribution funds like the Unemployment, Temporary Disability Insurance, and Paid Family Leave funds from being “raided,” and used for other purposes like balancing the State budget was unanimously approved today by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee.

“Voters deserve the chance to weigh in and decide whether or not they want to protect these funds that employees work so hard to secure,” said Senator Sweeney, D-Gloucester, Cumberland and Salem. “As a member of the Budget and Appropriations panel, I understand the hard decisions that go into crafting the State budget; however, we cannot allow our finances to be balanced on the backs of hard-working men and women who might have a legitimate need for a safety net due to unemployment, injury or family emergency. In essence, the bill would put these employee and employer contributions in a constitutional lock-box, only to be opened when needed by the workers who have been paying into it each month.”