Opinion

A pension pickle

Ever since Chris Christie took $900 million meant for a payment into the state’s pension system and used it to cover a shortfall in New Jersey’s budget, the political fallout has dominated the news cycle.

Democrats say the way to resolve the budget shortfall is to jack up taxes on corporations and the wealthy, and they submitted a budget that did just that — which Christie cut from the bill he signed.

At about the same time, a judge ruled the governor could suspend the pension payment for this year, while allowing lawsuits from public workers that seek to stop him from doing it again to go ahead.

Christie remains unapologetic, rightly noting the state is paying for the sins of his predecessors.

Next year, he says, New Jersey will — for the first time in its history — pay more for the health premiums of retirees than active workers.

A 2011 reform was good, he says, but it didn’t go far enough. So Christie promises will announce a new, sweeping pension reform sometime later this summer.

That reform wil be the key test. There’s no magic bullet here.

To fix things properly and not simply kick the can down the road, Jersey’s citizens will have to endure huge spending cuts and a recognition the state can no longer afford the benefits it is now promising its state workers.

In theory, taxes might be part of the answer, but — as Christie is quick to point out — the reality is they’re already so darned high that raising them further could mean more business and families leaving the state rather than more tax revenue.

“What you’re going to see me do all summer is to be out across the state of New Jersey making the argument that we need to fix this system, or it will eat us alive,” he told CNBC. “We need to speak in stark, plain, understandable terms to people. They will get it. They will understand and, when they do, empower us to take action.”

Good for him. New Jersey is in this mess, after all, because for decades previous governors and previous legislatures treated Jersey’s citizens like children, promising them all sorts of expensive goodies without ever mentioning how much they would cost.

The first step in addressing this looming fiscal catastrophe is for the governor to speak about it ­honestly.