Below is an email from Donna Antonucci on the latest developments in New Jersey at the state level pushing pension and benefit changes through legislative action. The opinions of Donna Antonucci do not necessarily represent the opinions of this blog or any other group that she may be affiliated with. I do however applaud her efforts in informing Hoboken citizens on some of the legislative activities that could have an impact on the City of Hoboken's ability to reduce the size of the budget and possibly give Hoboken taxpayers relief on the local level in the future.
Hello all,
This is an extremely important development in Trenton.
I just wanted to send you an update about a really exciting development. Gov. Christie and Senator Sweeney are pushing through legislation that would force changes to our Police and Fire contracts that is aligned with the Hoboken Union Contract Petition!
- Limits to sick time pay outs at retirement to a max of $15,000!
- Mandatory contributions to healthcare up to 1.5% of annual income!
- No part-time employees in the state pension program
- Fix Contribution plan for part-time employees who make a minimum income.
As soon as the 4 bills are posted, I will see what else is included. I am interested in seeing if they also limit terminal pay and say anything about measuring salaries not only against similar municipalities in NJ but also benchmarking against national trends adjusted for the NY metro cost of living which is what NYC does and has been doing since the Koch administration.We still need the Police and Fire audits. The Police audit that was done by the DCA a year ago now and is being held by the state (Susan Jacobucci) on the claim it's only in draft. This is what they do when they want to withhold what would otherwise be a public document - they say it's not done yet. Continue to write Governor Christie and his Chief of Staff, Richard Bagger, demanding that it's released.
Fiscal Monitor Judy Tripodi has also denied the Council's request to order a Fire audit as the DCA barely started that one. She holds the purse strings.
Governor Chritie doesn't have a public email address. Here is his physical address.
Office of the Governor
PO Box 001
Trenton, NJ 0862
Chief of Staff, Richard Bagger's email address is: richard.bagger@gov.state.nj.us
Thank you all,
Donna Antonucci ◦
