Chris Christie Proposes 4 Cost Cutting Bills by Donna Antonucci

Here is a repost from Donna Antonucci that I am republishing here as per her request. You can find out more about some of her research and initiatives at http://www.donnaforhoboken.com/.

Chris Christie Proposes 4 Cost Cutting Bills by Donna Antonucci

At the bottom of this post are the 4 bills proposed by Christie that would:

Require all state employees to contribute a MINIMUM of 1.5% of their base salary to healthcare premiums. Let's make employees have some skin in the game .

• Limits/caps the amount that any employee can take in unused sick time ($15K max)
• Recalculates how pension amounts are determined - over the last 5 years of service not the last 3. Makes it more difficult to pad pensions by giving employees who have announced their retirement to get excessive overtime to pump up the annual pension amount
• Removes part-time employees from the state pension system. Offers a fixed contribution plan for these employees
• Requires municipalities to fully fund pension contributions every year to ensure affordability.

The bills already have 23 sponsors a piece. They only need 21 votes to pass. At a minimum, we can expect all the sponsors to vote yes + other senators who will join the cause at the time of the vote. There is no reason to believe these won't pass. They are in sub-committee this week. They are wordsmithing. These will make the senate agenda for the vote either next week or the following.

Here are the Senators who sponsored one or more of the bills: Thank you Senators for your swift and decisive attention.

Sweeney, Stephen M.
Kean, Thomas H., Jr.
Van Drew, Jeff
Lesniak, Raymond J.
Oroho, Steven V.
Codey, Richard J.
Cunningham, Sandra B.
Beach, James
Gordon, Robert M.
Bateman, Christopher
Bucco, Anthony R.
Cardinale, Gerald
O'Toole, Kevin J.
Baroni, Bill
Stack, Brian P.
Doherty, Michael J.
Scutari, Nicholas P.
Madden, Fred H., Jr.
Buono, Barbara
Ruiz, M. Teresa
Sarlo, Paul A.
Gill, Nia H., Esq.
Pennacchio, Joseph
Kyrillos, Joseph M., Jr.
Beck, Jennifer
Smith, Bob
Whelan, Jim
Van Drew, Jeff
Weinberg, Loretta

Here are the documents for the details:

Requires municipalities to fully fund pensions every year
http://www.scribd.com/full/27065366?access_key=key-tkz9m2obibcdqv3z7d8

Sick leave payout changes/caps
http://www.scribd.com/full/27065221?access_key=key-197zco6ee8ps26xtow5z

Contributing to healthcare premiums
http://www.scribd.com/full/27065194?access_key=key-1j7kzp0gpwzm1x7sbh4e

Pension eligibility and pension formula (over the last 5 yrs v last 3)
http://www.scribd.com/full/27065172?access_key=key-nwynk9u2f1its8eogzl ◦

Chris Christie Proposes 4 Cost Cutting Bills by Donna Antonucci