When Republicans threaten to shut down government because it spends too much, they’re met by outrage. When Democrats threaten to shut down government because it spends too little — it’s a different story.
New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney vows to do just that if Gov. Chris Christie doesn’t make the full $2.4 billion payment to the state’s pension system for the next fiscal year. The governor is expected to use his budget Tuesday to argue for reform of a system whose unfunded liability is now estimated at $47 billion.
For his part, Christie says the issue isn’t the pension payment. The issue, he says, is a public-pension system increasingly putting the squeeze on the budget as other obligations are also rising. For example, just to keep pace with increased education, Medicaid and pension costs, state revenue will have to double its present rate of growth over the next two years.
All this comes as New Jersey Watchdog reports that the number of former public workers — 1,731 in all — earning pensions north of $100,000 a year has jumped by 75 percent over the past three years.
One retiree put it this way: “Politicians created this system, and I simply accepted what they gave me along the way. If taxpayers want to get angry with someone, they need to ask their politicians how they allowed the system to get to the point it is at.”
For his part Sweeney says, “If I had to shut down the government, we would.”
Too bad no politician ever threatened to shut down government back when Trenton was making unsustainable pension promises they simply kicked down the road to future governors, legislators and taxpayers.