Gov. Christie: I Will Not Increase Taxes On The People Of NJ To Pay For This скачать в хорошем качестве

Gov. Christie: I Will Not Increase Taxes On The People Of NJ To Pay For This

Sparta Town Hall, 5-14-2015. Question: Thank you Governor. My name is Mark, Mark Worobetz. I grew up in Union County, lived up here in Sussex County for the last 30 years. My question is about the pension and pension payments and the 2011 law. Our pension—if we paid the full pension this year it would be $3.1 billion? Governor Christie: That’s not even the full. That would be what was required under the 2011 law. That would be for the fiscal year starting July 1st. Mark Worobetz: OK. Governor Christie: It would be 3.1 billion, which represents I think at that point 5/7ths of the actuarially-required payment. The full payment if we were to make it would be 4 ½ billion per year from here forward. Mark Worobetz: OK. But just as per to the 2011 law it would be 3.1. Governor Christie: The 2011 law is 3.1 billion. Mark Worobetz: OK. And the budget I believe is 33.8 billion. Governor Christie: Ballpark. Mark Worobetz: All right, Rounding everything off, so if we do the mathematics we would have $30,700,000,000 left over after we made the full payment, so my question is, if we make the full payment, then we meet our obligations and we still have the 30-plus billion left. Don’t you think we should keep our promise, fund the pension, and allow this to continue and at the same time not get our bond ratings knocked down and meet our obligations? Governor Christie: Yeah, no, because what I would like you to do is come to my office and tell me where you’re going to find the additional 1.7 billion out of the 30, so let’s start with education funding. Education funding is $12 ½ billion of the 33 billion, and we’re not allowed to touch that, per the Supreme Court, so $12 ½ billion is off the table for openers. You then go to Medicaid. Medicaid is not an optional payment for us either. It’s a partnership with the federal government, at some level 50-50, at some level 90-10. If we tried to reduce Medicaid funding to help pay for this, not only would we hurt the poor people who rely on Medicaid to get their health treatment, but also the federal government would come back and do something they call claw back. If you reduce the benefits, they then come back and take for a period of time prior to that all the money they gave you for their 50% share and you got to pay it back, so it’s not only what you would reduce it and how that would hurt folks but also you’d have to write a check to the federal government for Medicaid. That’s a multibillion-dollar part of our budget. Mark Worobetz: OK. But I want to get the point across is maybe there is a solution to this because— Governor Christie: What? What’s your solution? Mark Worobetz: Maybe shared sacrifice would be a solution. We’ve taken it from the police, the fire, the schoolteachers, the workers. Governor Christie: What have we taken? Mark Worobetz: The sacrifice. They’re paying more and getting less. Governor Christie: They’re not getting less. They’re getting exactly what they got before. Mark Worobetz: The pension benefits have been decreased. Governor Christie: No, the pension benefits have not decreased. Mark Worobetz: There’s no more COLA. Teachers—the workers are having more taken out. Governor Christie: The COLA? Are you serious? Mark Worobetz: Well, that’s a benefit, isn’t it? Governor Christie: COLA—I mean the fact is you’re telling me that that’s a sacrifice, that you don’t get an increase in your pension every year that you didn’t pay for when in fact you were in the system? Mark Worobetz: But wasn’t it once a benefit that was taken away? Workers are now paying more out of their salaries. Governor Christie: Current workers are paying more because current workers weren’t paying and still are not— Mark Worobetz: OK. ...