From the folks who brought you the Cap 2.0 property tax calculator, we now have the newest internet resource to find out the dumb ways government has decided to spend our money. For those of you paying attention through the lame duck session, Governor Christie and the legislature have been going back and forth on how to deal with the obvious problem of unused sick time for New Jersey state employees.
You see, in our state we allow employees to bank their time in order to cash them out upon retirement. Depending on how many days are saved, the payouts can be incredibly huge. So huge that across the state, it seems that the current liability for eligible sick time banking is over $825 million. This, like so many other policies we have just been unquestionably living under all of these years, is unsustainable.
Governor Christie’s proposal to deal with this issue is the most obvious and intelligent one. End the practice entirely. Democrats want to cap the amount that people can take at $15,000. This is stupid, why only go half way? If we all agree that the intended use of sick time pay is to compensate people on days when they cannot make it to work for health reasons, then why not make that the only reason for the days to exist?
Don’t agree? Well take a look at how much you are on the hook for in your hometown. I have a feeling your mind will change pretty quickly.
