TRENTON — Irate public employees converged on the Statehouse by the thousands Thursday tooting horns, carrying signs and disrupting a Senate hearing, but the show of force failed to break a legislative agreement overhauling their state health and pension benefits. Union members gathered at the Statehouse steps and clogged a Senate hearing room in an effort to thwart the...
TRENTON — Irate public employees converged on the Statehouse by the thousands Thursday tooting horns, carrying signs and disrupting a Senate hearing, but the show of force failed to break a legislative agreement overhauling their state health and pension benefits.
Union members gathered at the Statehouse steps and clogged a Senate hearing room in an effort to thwart the progress of a bipartisan bill that was worked out Wednesday night between Democrats and Republicans.
There was even an inflatable rat outside the Statehouse annex with a sign on its chest that said, "Pension betrayal."
It seemed at times as if the demonstrators didn’t know who they were maddest at: the Republican lawmakers doing the bidding of Gov. Chris Christie or their Democratic counterparts who joined in to support the measure now headed for votes on the Senate floor and the Assembly next week.
At one point the police led more than two dozen union workers from the hearing and charged them with disorderly conduct after they locked arms and began shouting "kill the bill" and "workers rights are human rights."
"There’s a lot of sheep inside, and the lions are out here fighting," Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Mercer) told an estimated 3,500 public workers gathered outside the Statehouse in Trenton.
As the raucous crowd cheered on union leaders and disgruntled Democrats, the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee absorbed a litany of blistering criticism of the bill and the legislators who support it. The measure, if approved, will force the state’s 500,000 public workers to assume a much larger share of the costs for health care and pension benefits.
The labor leaders testified that health benefits should be negotiated, not legislated, and urged the panel to split the measure into separate bills.
For four hours, union leaders pleaded in vain with Democratic legislators to vote against the measure, which was approved by a 9-4 vote.
"You are trampling on our fundamental democratic rights," said Bob Master, political director of the Communications Workers of America, the state’s largest public employee union. "Real Democrats would kill this bill."
Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), the bill’s architect, began the four-hour hearing against the backdrop of jeers and insults. Union members hissed when his name was called and berated him as a "disgrace" and "turncoat."
Sweeney, a union ironworker, touted his union credentials, but said that as a legislator he also had a obligation to protect the state’s taxpayers.
"We need action," he said. "Reform is needed now. We have a pension system in crisis, one that is teetering on the brink of collapse. That is becoming clearer as we see record numbers of public employees retiring."
New Jersey is confronted by a $53.9 billion pension deficit because for years the state did not pay into it, the stock market swooned during the recession and benefits to the expanding work force increased. Health care costs have also soared, and there are $66.8 billion in unfunded liabilities.
Sweeney said the pension changes are about ensuring there is money to pay retirees and the health benefit overhaul is about protecting taxpayers. "Change is here and it is fair and affordable," he said.
Gov. Chris Christie praised the measure Thursday at the annual conference of the New Jersey Association of Counties meeting in Atlantic City. "New Jersey is setting a model for dealing with these problems in an honest, forthright and bipartisan way," he boasted.
But Senator Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex) challenged Sweeney’s contention that the only way to achieve savings is through legislation, calling it a false choice.
"I think that you can achieve the same savings through negotiations ... I am not sure what the governor’s afraid of," she said. "Instead, he’s going through the back door and changing the rules, that’s what I object to."
The bill shifts more of the costs of health and pension benefits onto public workers in the form of increased contributions, while also freezing cost of living adjustments for retirees and raising the retirement age.
Christie, who helped shape the bill, has said he hoped to save $300 million from health benefit reform, but a state treasury official testified Thursday hearing that the bill would only save $10 million. Christie and lawmakers have until June 30 to fill the gap and approve his $29.6 billion budget for the next fiscal year.
In an effort to tamp down criticism, Sweeney made two last-minute changes to the bill: he locked in retirement benefits for current employees with at least 20 years on the job instead of 25 years, and broadened exceptions to a controversial provision that limits workers to in-state hospitals.
The New Jersey Education Association insists the provision was tucked in the bill as a gift to Sweeney’s long-time friend and political patron, George Norcross, who is the chairman of Camden’s Cooper Hospital, which competes with hospitals in Philadelphia.
But at the end of the day the 9-4 vote, including support from four Democrats — Brian Stack (D-Hudson), Jeff Van Drew (D-Cape May), James Beach (D-Camden), and Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex) — set up a vote by the full Senate on Monday, the same day the Assembly Budget Committee will hold its hearing. If approved, the full Assembly will vote on Thursday.
While Democrats control both chambers, a majority of them oppose the bill, so Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Shelia Oliver (D-Essex) — who accepted the deal much more reluctantly — are relying on Republicans to pass the bill.
Sweeney said he was not worried about being overthrown as Senate president by fellow Democrats. "I’ve been respectful of my colleagues and they’ve been respectful of me," he said.
But for their part, union leaders said they felt betrayed by Democrats, who have historically fought for middle-class workers.
"Do not think you can sell us out in June and buy us back in November," Barbara Keshishian, president of the NJEA told the mid-day crowd gathered outside the State, "I am mad as hell about politicians who were elected by the people but sell their votes to the powerful."
Standing in the crowd, Andrew Magee, a Camden firefighter for 18 years, said he had battled two blazes and had hardly slept but felt compelled to attend the rally. He said he gave his best years to the city, only to be confronted by a deal hammered out in private and not at the negotiating table.
"They’re discarding me as Thursday morning trash, putting me on the curb," he said. "That’s how I feel."
Staff writers Chris Megarian, Ginger Gibson Matt Friedman, Sal Rizzo, Megan DeMarco, MaryAnn Spoto and Christopher Baxter contributed to this report.
Previous coverage:
• N.J. Senate panel approves pension, health benefit overhaul bill
• Gov. Christie touts bipartisan effort leading to public worker pension overhaul bill
• Some N.J. Democrats tell protesters they will not vote for public worker pension overhaul
• N.J. Democrats are unable to win unions over on proposed benefits deal