Christie Calls For Elimination Of Vacation And Sick Time Payouts For Public Workers
Governor calls on the Legislature to take action during the remaining 30 days of session.
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Gov. Chris Christie urged the Legislature on Thursday to pass his plan to eliminate vacation and sick time payouts for retiring public employees.
Joined by Bergen County mayors at the armory in Teaneck, Christie said the payouts amount to a “a going-away present to public employees who had the great good fortune of not being sick.”
Liabilities for unused sick and vacation day benefits total more than $825 million statewide, Christie said. Bergen County alone owes its 2,754 employees more than 470 years worth of unused time, and the county's budget puts the cost at $54.2 million.
“Every tax dollar that’s used to cash out unused sick and vacation days is a dollar that should be going to limit a tax increase and be sent right back to the taxpayer,” Christie said. "The only way to deal with property taxes is the lessen the amount we spend."
Christie called on the Legislature to take action during the remaining 30 days of the lame duck session. The Legislature has approved a $15,000 cap on the payouts and Democrats have proposed scaling it back to a $7,500 cap.
Christie, however, said the payouts must be scrapped altogether.
“These numbers have no bearing to anything that’s real,” he said. “They’re just picking out numbers as a gift to public employees for not being sick.”
He said the argument made by some opponents of the reform — that employees would start using sick days as time off — is without merit.
"I can’t believe that we’re not going to do a common sense reform because we say we can’t control fraud," he said.
In Teaneck, taxpayers have nearly $4.4 million in future liabilities for sick and vacation time payouts, the governor’s office said. Mayor Mohammed Hameeduddin said in 2008, the town had to pay out $500,000 in unused time to five deputy chiefs.
“We had to go to emergency appropriations for half a million for time that they accrued and time that they earned,” Hameeduddin said. “I’m so happy that the governor is now taking leadership as well as the Legislature.”
State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, who sat in on the press conference, said Democrats have made attempts to work with Christie.
“As with most things the governor brings up, reality is often a little more complex than his rhetoric,” Weinberg said in a statement.
“We need to ensure that in our rush to reform the system, we do not push long-time workers to the exit. If we do, local governments will be faced with having to pay all of those retiring workers now, inadvertently putting themselves in an even more tenuous fiscal position," she said.
Christie called the reform a “common sense” measure and stressed the bipartisan support of 234 mayors across the state.
Lisa Shields
4:36 pm on Thursday, December 8, 2011
My dad was a county worker 32 years ago.
He never took sick days, or vacation for more than 18 years.
He died of a stroke at 52.
He never received a penny for all that time.
What do I think of "eliminating payouts"?
I think it stinks.
PS...When he died my dad has amassed over a year of unpaid sick leave and vacation. So the county got a freebie equal to one year of his life...
Marc Perna
6:14 pm on Thursday, December 8, 2011
It doesnt stink. What stinks is your father's death.
He amassed the time because he never needed to use it. Its like an insurance policy. They dont give back your premiums when you dont have an accident do they?
Lisa Shields
6:18 pm on Thursday, December 8, 2011
Had he lived, he would have gotten a payout of the time.
So No...not like an insurance policy at all.
Shore Thing
8:34 pm on Thursday, December 8, 2011
Sorry about your dad, but sick days are to be use for when your sick and vacation days should be taken while you work to enjoy with your family etc.. We just can't affor this stuff anymore and the taxpayers are tired of being ripped off by crooked politicians (ie Corzine) and paying outrageous taxes. As a private sector employee I don't get any of these benfits. Enough is enough!!!
Leslie Bianczik
12:51 pm on Friday, December 9, 2011
@Lisa your comment is exactly the point..."had he lived he would have gotten a payout" that is what they are talking about eliminating..."not like an insurance policy at all" exactly, Marc's point is that it should be like insurance. Sick time should work like unemployment; it's there when you need it and you should be thankful (not jealous) if you don't need it. It shouldn't be looked at as part of your compensation.
Christina Marie
8:47 pm on Friday, December 9, 2011
I know it's a sticky subject but I have to agree with most here...you can see by the numbers in this article and have to admit it is totally out of hand. Sick days are to be used for just that, being sick. The policy should be use them or lose them as with most business and industries. Vacation time is given and that should also be used. Most people squirrel these days and walk away with over 100K when they leave. Policies need to be looked at and revised. These costs are hurting everyone.
Lisa Shields
11:55 pm on Friday, December 9, 2011
What is overlooked is that state pay was always lower than the private sector.
If you worked for the state, you could be paid 30 percent less, but had more stable employment. It was a trade off.
To walk away with 100k you need to have a top job---which MOST workers don't. The high ranked also double dipped, something your average worker didn't do. So the rank and file will take a hit for the fat cats...as usual.
If Christie really cared about this, he'd eliminate a lot of those patronage jobs..but i don't see him doing that.
J T
9:01 am on Saturday, December 10, 2011
This is an example of a benefit that sounds reasonable, being abused until it becomes an entitlement, at which point it becomes a big battle to take it away. Private industry would never allow this practice. Your sick time accrual is capped. And if you're squirreling till retirement you should get paid out at the pay rate when you earned the sick time not when you retired at higher pay.
Christina Marie
11:33 am on Saturday, December 10, 2011
Ah Lisa, I work for a global chemical company. There has been a salary freeze for the past three years. I am grateful for my sick time and vacation as they could have done away with that too...as JT mentioned...some people seem to believe it is a entitlement. For someone in the police, fire, school to walk away from retirement with 100K is not the high ranked salaries. It is by, as you say, the lower pay person who has rat packed their time in the 25 - 30 yrs of service. 100K plus. If private sectors allowed this...we would all be on the bread line.
just want to add
12:12 pm on Saturday, December 10, 2011
While I am on the fence with retirement payouts, one must also remember that many people who work in the public sector do not receive disability pay/insurance. "Squirreling" away the days whether it be vacation or sick, is the way most of us "create" disability pay.
ed mays
12:37 am on Monday, December 12, 2011
Parking this gravy train is long overdue. No rolling over unused sick and then cashing them out years later. Vacation days should be capped at 30 days..use them or lose them. I would like to hear what is the monthly contribution to their health insurance coverage....1.5 percent? Taxpayers have carried this unfair burden long enough.
Patrick
4:36 pm on Monday, December 19, 2011
Just wanted to take a shot at settling this issue in a way that both sides can respect... what this comes down to is, first, respecting the sanctity of contract. These state workers spent their careers accumulating sick + vacation days, because that's how their compensation package was built. The muncipalities got the benefit of - in effect - lots of extra overtime by experienced workers, rather than having to pay actual overtime or hire seasonal help. The workers who worked under that system deserve to be cashed out, and do not deserve to get the rug pulled out from under them at the end of what is typically a long and useful career. Part 2 - does that compensation system make sense moving forward? No way. Doesn't make sense in this day and age. So, for any existing employees, you bank what they have, for payout upon retirement, and introduce them to their new benefits package (something like - you lose your vacation time every year if you don't take it). Any new hires start on the new system. For any of you screaming bloody murder about the payouts currently owed, well maybe it wasn't the best plan, but if it was part of YOUR retirement package, you'd expect exactly what was owed to you under the contract terms you originally agreed to.
lisa
3:21 pm on Thursday, December 22, 2011
Isn't sick time earned as part of your benefits? If you earn it and don't use it, you should be compensated. Now, as Patrick mentioned above, if they stop making it an earned benefit and it is simply an allowance, then no, a compensation wouldn't be due. I don't see how my family members, including my retiring parents, still live in a state where the working class are constantly under fire.