State
unions: Don't cut benefits
Teachers, others say budget gulf
is not their fault
Tuesday, May 17, 2005 • BY JOE DONOHUE •
Star-Ledger Staff
About 5,000 unionized public workers
staged a noontime rally yesterday outside the Statehouse as
a warning to state officials not to balance the budget by
scaling back their pensions and other benefits.
Waving signs saying "We Are Not The
Problem" and "Today Is The Day That We Fight Back," the
teachers, state workers, prison guards and others said they
shouldn't be forced to sacrifice. Instead, they urged state
officials to find savings in management and patronage
jobs.
"I work just as hard as if I were running
my own business," said Lorraine Mazza of Saddle Brook in
Bergen County, a state court worker for 26 years. State
workers, she said, "get a bad rap."
Carla Katz, president of Communications
Workers of America Local 1034, said the rally was held to
coincide with the first legislative voting session in two
months. The protest was prompted in part by acting Gov.
Richard Codey's March 1 budget address, in which he
described pensions and health benefits as "entitlements" and
warned about the need to halt their spiraling
cost.
His budget calls for $50 million in
savings from so-called "employee actions" that still have
not been spelled out. And the state Health Benefits
Commission recently moved to raise the amount that some
retirees must pay for prescription drugs after Jan. 1 to
save an estimated $26 million.
Katz said Codey's attempt to stigmatize
benefits is "just so wrong and unfair."
"These are not entitlements. They are
earned. And they are protected by contracts," she said.
"This is something that we care deeply about and we'll go to
the mat to protect, friends or not."
More than anything else, Katz said, the
state's budget woes have been caused by a cumulative loss of
about $14 billion in income tax revenues due to cuts enacted
by former Gov. Christie Whitman. "Blaming budget problems on
public employees is not the right answer. The fiscal
problems of New Jersey were not created by public workers,"
she said.
Kelley Heck, spokeswoman for Codey,
declined to comment on the rally except to repeat a previous
statement that state employees are "hard workers who deserve
a fair benefits package," but one "the state can
afford."
Codey's attempt to spotlight the problem
won praise from the Commerce and Industry Association of New
Jersey, which represents 800 companies. Budget pressures are
expected to intensify next year, when pension costs alone
are set to jump $1 billion.
"With the state facing fiscal deficits
for several years in a row, entitlement packages for state
workers should no longer be looked at as a sacred cow," said
Richard Goldberg, the group's president.
But the lone legislator who spoke at the
rally, Assemblyman Bill Baroni (R-Mercer), who represents
about 30,000 state workers, insisted that neither
Republicans nor Democrats should turn his constituents into
scapegoats.
"I don't want New Jersey government to be
United Airlines and not fulfilling its moral commitment to
our public employees," said Baroni, referring to a federal
bankruptcy court decision last week to let United stop
funding four pension plans.
Joe Donohue covers state government and politics. He may
be reached at jdonohue@starledger.com or (609) 989-0208.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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