GOP Senators Call for Bipartisan Commission to Investigate Pension System

Senators Joseph Pennacchio and Bill Baroni are drafting legislation that would create a bipartisan commission to investigate the state's handling of its depleted $59 billion pension system and come up with a plan to restore it to solvency. The Senate Resolution would create a bipartisan panel of senators with the power to issue subpoenas. That power would be used to compel testimony from government officials and investment advisers who have been reluctant or unwilling to talk openly about the state's investment procedures or the $58 billion pension deficit and the threat it poses to taxpayers, retirees and government's ability to pay for services.

"It simply isn't enough for the state to file lawsuits after hundreds of millions of dollars are lost in speculative investments in companies such as Lehman Brothers and AIG," Senator Pennacchio said. "I want complete and honest answers on how we should be investing and how we can eliminate this looming deficit once and for all. We need a thorough and open review of investment procedures, and we need the power to compel anyone who comes before this commission to testify so that effective reform legislation can be debated and passed."

"Governor Corzine's budgets will underfund the pensions by another $4.3 billion in 2009 and 2010 alone, based on estimates from the Office of Legislative Services," Senator Baroni said. "We need a definitive plan for restoring the pension funds to solvency or we risk breaking promises made to both taxpayers and government employees."

Both senators said they are troubled by published statements indicating that Governor Corzine may be counting on future returns in the stock market to eliminate a $58 billion deficit.

"I'm very concerned that the state is making overly risky investments to try to eliminate a deficit that is almost double the annual state budget," Pennacchio said. "It's a fool's errand. Based on the refusal of the Treasurer and Governor to provide answers to questions about the pensions, I have no doubt that the only way we will get real pension reform is to begin with a legislative investigation by a bipartisan panel with the power to require witnesses to testify."

"A bipartisan panel can create the kind of legislation needed to safeguard pensions and prevent huge tax increases to pay them," Baroni said. "We need a complete and open airing of the mistakes of the past, a debate about the best solutions to the pension problem and passage of legislation that will solve the deficit problem once and for all."

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