Wednesday, January 18, 2012 by John Reitmeyer, State House Bureau, The Record
New Jersey taxpayers will still fund public pensions for a group of private employees and lobbyists because of another disagreement between Democratic lawmakers and Governor Christie.
The governor used a pocket veto this week to kill legislation that would have ended taxpayer-funded benefits for new employees at three advocacy organizations that were granted the perks in a long-overlooked law dating back to the 1950s. The legislation had cleared both houses of the Legislature unanimously.
A series of articles in The Record beginning in late 2009 revealed that 63 retirees from three organizations — the New Jersey League of Municipalities, New Jersey School Boards Association and New Jersey Association of Counties — were receiving a combined $1.3 million in public retirement benefits annually.
Assemblyman Paul Moriarty, D-Gloucester, sponsored legislation in 2009 in response to The Record’s reporting that would have prevented employees at the three advocacy organizations from receiving taxpayer-funded benefits.
After long negotiations with the Senate and Republicans, the Assembly passed a version of the legislation during the final moments of the last legislative session on Jan. 9. The bill addressed the cost of those benefits by eliminating them for new hires at the three organizations; it had won the support of the League of Municipalities and had previously cleared the Senate.
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