Pension & Health Benefits Updates: Our Struggle for Our Benefits

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Legislative Committees release recommendations

On November 15, the four committees of the legislature officially released their recommendations. They will meet on Monday, November 20 to vote to approve those recommendations and close the Special Session.

Many of the recommendations have been or soon will be put into legislation and debated through the normal legislative committee process. NJEA will testify extensively. We expect the pensions and benefits proposals to be considered immediately. With the exception of the school funding formula, we expect most of the bills to be considered by the end of December.

To read the committee reports – which number more than 800 pages go to: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/PropertyTaxSession/specialsessionpt.asp

This is the third edition of the Special Legislative newsletter, which is designed to provide NJEA members and leaders with the information they need to stay current on the state’s special legislative session. Read the first two editions.

Special Session recommendations have negative consequences

NJEA believes that many of the committees’ recommendations will have negative, unintended consequences on education in New Jersey. The proposals seek to address the property tax problem all at once and largely at the expense of hard-working public employees.

Among their recommendations, the committees have suggested tiering the pension plan, tiering health benefits, raising the early retirement age for new employees, raising the retirement age to 62 for new hires, among others. Read the list of concepts NJEA opposes.

NJEA call to action

NJEA is urging all members – active and retired – to attend a rally on Monday, December 11 to protest the Legislature’s short-sighted, political solutions to the property tax problem.

Members are encouraged to attend lobby days on:

• Monday, December 4
• Thursday, December 7
• Thursday, December 14

In addition, NJEA officers will testify and NJEA will organize members to lobby legislators in their district offices.

NJEA supports some recommendations

The Special Session has yielded some positive recommendations that NJEA supports. Read those concepts NJEA supports.

Take action now!

Visit NJEA’s Legislative Action Center to e-mail your legislators today. Tell them: don’t tier our benefits, protect the SHBP, and respect the collective bargaining process.

Here’s how:

Go to www.njea.org. Click on "Legislative Action", and "Cyberlobbying" on the pop out menu. Log in by entering your PIN (it's on your membership card) and your password (it's the last 4 digits of your Social Security number). You will see an action alert entitled "Benefits and schools under attack!" Click Take Action and follow the instructions to send an e-mail to your legislators today!