Officials Comment on Pension, Benefits Bill

Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday signed that will trim the pensions and benefits of public employees. We asked officials in Morris Township and Morris Plains whether they thought the new legislation would cause public employees to retire sooner than they had planned in hopes of preserving more of their benefits.

Timothy Quinn, Morris Township administrator said he "would not be surprised if there are more retirements following the new legislation," but said retirements had been minimal in the run-up to the legislation's passage.

According to Quinn, in 2011, there has been one retirement from the department of public works and one from the fire department, as follows:

• Henry Reid, Department of Public Works, retired June 1, 2011 and received a $2,034 payout for unused sick time.
• Michael Ryer, Fire Department, retired May 1, 2011 and received an $881 payout for unused sick time.

The township requires employees to use their vacation time, so the only payouts at retirement are for unused sick time, Quinn said.

Quinn said that two more fire department employees are scheduled for retirement in 2011, one on July 1 and the other on August 1. He said he would not have the payout amounts available until after their retirement dates.

David E. Banks, CFO for the Borough of Morris Plains, said he is not expecting any municipal employees to retire earlier than planned based on the new legislation.

"I don't think there will be a move to the door," Banks said. "[The new bill] is a 127-page document, so I'm still reviewing it, but I suspect it won't  be as bad as people think. The changes in health benefits happen over several years."

Banks said that although Morris Plains has a retirement coming up in November for a 30-year police officer, Lieutenant Ed Dobbins, the $26,800 payout for accrued sick time won't affect the current budget at all. The borough, he said, has been judiciously depositing funds into a retirement reserve fund for years in order to meet their agreements with employees. "We have a very pro-active mayor and council," he said.

Public employees in Morris Plains who started after January 1 of 2005 have their sick-time payouts capped at $20,000.

Chris Kelly, business administrator for the Morris School District, addressed the bill's requirement that New Jersey's public employees pay more toward their benefits. She said school employees in the Morris School District were already required to contribute 1.5 percent of their salaries according to the budget. That is greater this year than the pension reform plan requirement of 1 percent.

"I don't see this being an issue, not this year," she said. "In future years, the contributions by teachers will offset some of the increases to health benefits. It will benefit the district. In the past the district–hence the taxpayer–had the burden of tax increases. This will help offset that."

With the Morris School District for two years, Kelly spent her previous 30 years in corporate America. "I'm used to paying benefits," she said. "It's the law ... They (the teachers) knew this was coming."

Comments from the Morris Plains School District were not immediately available.