New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney is once again pushing to cut pension costs, setting up another standoff with the state’s public-employee unions, the Wall Street Journal reported. He must also sell his pension-overhaul plan to the public and Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat who campaigned on protecting the middle class. Pension and health care costs will eat up nearly a quarter of the state’s $45 billion budget by fiscal year 2023, fueling a $3 billion deficit, according to a recent report from a fiscal task force established by the state Legislature. “We’re broke,” said Sweeney, who supported a 2011 pension overhaul under former Republican Gov. Chris Christie that infuriated public employees. “Just throwing tax dollars at it isn’t going to fix it.” One of the task force’s proposals, which Sweeney is endorsing, would shift new state employees and those with less than five years of service to a hybrid pension and 401(k)-style plan. Another would move public employees to less-expensive health-care plans and require future retirees to pay more for health care.
