By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
The Assembly GOP found a new number today to trumpet ahead of the 2013 elections: $540 million.
That’s how much they say pension and health benefits reforms have saved New Jersey’s property taxpayers.
“After property taxes soared by 70 percent under Democrat administrations last decade, our reforms limit growth to less than the rate of inflation,” said Asm. Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth) who co-sponsored the pension reform legislation:
Taxpayer savings from pension reform escalated from $267 million last year to $543 million this year. Combined with $100 million savings from healthcare reform, property taxpayers are saving more than $645 million this year. Those numbers will continue to add up and are sweet music to the ears of every property taxpayer in New Jersey.”
It’s estimated that these reforms will save property taxpayers approximately $120 billion over the next three decades. Now the GOP will resume its push to ban payouts for unused state employee sick leave time:
Sick days are for when you’re sick,” O’Scanlon said. “We can deliver more savings for property taxpayers by ending the practice of paying obscene amounts of money to public employees who have enjoyed good health.”
The GOP isn’t perfect, folks, but the reasons to support a Republican legislative turnover in November continue to pile up if you’re willing to look at the data…
