By The Staff | The Save Jersey Blog
Trenton never changes, Save Jerseyans.
On Monday, Assemblyman John DiMaio (R-Warren, Hunterdon) let Democrats have it for proposing no less than nine separate spending bills on Assembly Appropriations Committee agenda for a single day while a paid sick leave measure cleared the State Senate.
“Collectively these bills, if enacted, would cost New Jersey taxpayers more than $190 million,” said DiMaio, who serves as the Republican appropriations officer. “In fact, a single piece of legislation has a potential fiscal impact of $120 million.”
It’s all a part of a decidedly anti-business legislative agenda that’s off to a strong start in 2016.
Unsurprisingly, the pension and benefits numbers remain particular brutal and front-and-center on Republicans’ minds during the latest Democrat spending binge. New Jersey contributed $1.3 billion into the pension system this year and another $3.27 billion public employee health benefits. By 2022? $10.27 billion on pension and benefits. The Democratic-controlled Legislature’s constitutional amendment prioritizing the public employees benefits is therefore met with great trepidation among the opposition.
“With pension payments significantly going up each year, we’re spending money we don’t have,” added DiMaio. “We need to restrain ourselves from adding recurring costs to every budget when we should be taking the money and using it to help fund the pensions. Even dedicating all revenue growth to pensions or health benefits is not enough. New Jersey’s budget diet doesn’t need to add more spending; we need to cut it out.”
Want more background on the pension train wreck?
Click here.
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