By Samantha Marcus, NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
TRENTON — More than a dozen unions today announced they plan to sue Gov. Chris Christie to force him to increase next year’s payment into the public worker pension system.
Christie’s proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins this July, which he introduced last week amid a call for sweeping new pension reforms, includes a $1.3 billion pension payment. That’s nearly double this year’s contribution but still far below what Christie agreed to under a 2011 pension overhaul.
That 2011 overhaul promised workers higher contributions — ramping up to the full payment recommended by actuaries. In exchange, workers have paid more for health and pension benefits, the state suspended cost-of-living increases and the retirement age was raised.
This lawsuit could be expected to mirror a suit filed last summer and decided just last week that argued those payments were contractually protected and Christie broke the law he signed when he slashed them.
“This governor’s continuing disregard for his own pension funding law leaves us no choice but to go back to court to resume this fight in court on behalf of hundreds of thousands of public-sector workers who make their full pension contributions and depend on the modest income they earn in retirement,” New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech said in a statement.
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