By Matt Rooney
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The N.J. Chamber of Commerce is better known for advocating the Democrat Party’s interests than that of… commerce.
But even the Chamber — which has lent its vocal support to tax hikes and other business-killing policies in recent memory — can’t find a good reason to support new legislation sponsored by Assemblyman John McKeon (D-Essex) which would allow a handful of elected officials to claim pension payments from a time they were not even in the pension system.
“On a related note, we further need our legislators to commit to rejecting irresponsible fiscal initiatives that have gotten us into this fiscal dilemma,” said Chamber President Tom Bracken on Thursday in a larger release addressing Trenton’s ongoing budget battle. “Assemblyman John McKeon has introduced legislation (A-4176) that would enhance pensions for certain office holders. The timing and content of this bill is difficult to understand in our current budget situation. All it does is enhance pension payments for ‘double dippers’ and further deepen the already huge deficit in the state’s pension system. This kind of legislative insanity must stop!”
You know what they say about a broken clock, Save Jerseyans.
Meanwhile, Politico‘s Matt Friedman noted this morning that McKeon “insists there’s nothing sneaky about its timing and that it’s merely meant to clean up the last pension bill — the one that benefited Redd. And yet McKeon, who says “leadership” asked him to introduce the bill, won’t say who in leadership asked him. If this is being done in good faith, why didn’t the leader who asked McKeon to introduce it just do it himself? And why won’t McKeon specifically name the leader?”
Stay tuned.
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