So Much for Early Retirement
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008The news in New Jersey is seldom good. Amid budget cuts, one of the proposals Gov. Corzine has been banking on is dangling incentives to the state worker pool to get them to retire early. He promised to not fill a large portion of those jobs.
To grease the wheel, Corzine had planned on using $334 million he had stashed to fund the retirements.
Well, you can kiss that goodbye.
Today we learned that the Unemployment Fund is dangerously low. New Jersey politicians have raided this fund so much over the last 14 years, there is not enough to pay out the benefits. The fund is set up so that when it dips to a certain level businesses are hit up for a higher tax to cover the shortage. That is where we are.
Corzine knows that having that business tax kick in is not good for a struggling economy. So, what will he do? He’s going to raid his secret stash for the early retirements to float the Unemployment Fund. That means those state workers who would be off the books aren’t going to go anywhere (unless taxpayers put up more cash to get them out). That means taxpayers will not realize the savings of reducing the state work force. Twelve percent increases to their health benefits. Four+ percent raises. Pension stipends.
Nothing has changed. New Jersey’s government cannot afford itself.