Andrew Mills of the Star Ledger announce Chris Christie to reduce pension payments to fill $800M NJ budget gap.
TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie today announced plans to reduce two key payments scheduled for the state's pension system for public workers — an emergency move that could trigger lawsuits and further downgrades of the state's credit rating but solves an immediate concern by plugging an $807 million shortfall in the state budget.
At a news conference in the Statehouse today, the Republican governor said his plan is to reduce a $1.6 billion payment that was scheduled to be made before June 30 — to $696 million. The governor also intends to postpone a $2.25 billion payment that was set for next year to $681 million.
"We will not make the payments that apply to the sins of the past," Christie said. The new, lower payments he has proposed will cover the cost of employees currently active in the pension system, the governor said, but will not chip away at the total unfunded liability in the pension fund accrued before he was governor.
Governor Christie blamed previous governors, and lawmakers in the Statehouse, saying ""We're still digging out of problems two decades in the making."
The state's pension fund face $52 billion in unfunded liabilities and this move could lead to further downgrading of the state credit rating.
12:29 PM PT: Darryl Isherwood of the Star-Ledger gives a report from the New Jersey Legislative Investigative Committee where former Christie staff Matt Mowers testified this morninn, in Ex-Christie campaign staffer grilled about endorsements at bridge scandal hearing.
TRENTON — Lawmakers today peppered Matt Mowers, a former staffer in Gov. Chris Christie's administration and later his campaign, with questions relating what they believe to be the illegal intersection of campaign and government activity during the governor’s bid for reelection.
Members of the joint legislative committee investigating the George Washington Bridge scandal, which had subpoenaed Mowers to testify, focused on several emails the former administration aide sent during his time working for the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, as well as conversations he had with members of that office after he left to work on Gov. Chris Christie’s reelection campaign.
Of particular interest to committee members during the first two hours of testimony was a list of "Top 100 towns" Mowers said he was given when he went to work for IGA. Mowers testified that while IGA’s, mission was to focus on all constituents, he used the list as a guide on which towns to focus on when he first came aboard.
Mowers denied had done political work on government time. It becomes clear that Mayor Sokolich was the subject of much political pressure and fear retaliation from Bergen county Democrats
Mayor Sokolich told Mowers he would not be endorsing Christie the night before Kelly's famous “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” email.
1:09 PM PT: The bill for the last few months from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher just came in. My experience is bills from lawyers for investigations like this are always a "little" higher than we expect so we shouldn't be surprised. (Humor alert! I'm getting so good at this. Maybe I should give my day job - what do you think?)
Michael Symons Gov’s lawyers on pace to bill taxpayers $3M
Gibson, Dunn & Cruthcher originally hired by Governor Christie's office for an internal investigation of the George Washingon Bridge scandal appear to be on pace to bill taxpayers over $3 million for their work which has expanded to include work unrelated to the lane closuures including allegations made by Hoboken Mayer Dawn Zimmer.
The cost for the review was nearly $1.1 million just for three weeks in January, not counting similarly intense hours logged in February and March and additional work this spring. That’s a pace to reach or top $3 million, which equals half the cost for running Christie’s office for a year. That’s the case even after Gibson Dunn agreed to lower its hourly fee from $650 to $350 and not bill for travel and other expenses, which the firm said cut the bill by nearly half for January.
There are other costs, as well. For instance, the state will be paying for some employees’ private attorneys. Also, outside counsel hired by the Legislature has billed approximately $750,000 through March.
“The fact is it’s not just the administration doing an internal investigation but it’s also the administration having to comply with all the various other investigations and requests for information, both formal and informal, that have come in to the administration. So there’s a lot that is going to be involved in the cost of this, just not the internal investigation but having lawyers do that and lawyers who have to represent people who are called as witnesses. So there’s a lot, and we see that the costs are running up, too, on the legislative side of things,” Christie said.
