Senator William Gormley and Assemblyman Kevin O'Toole

GORMLEY AND O'TOOLE: STOP STONEWALLING ON BENEFITS REVIEW TASK FORCE REPORT
CALL ON SCUTARI AND POU TO ALLOW VOTE ON INDIVIDUAL REFORMS

October 25, 2006

Senator William Gormley/ 609-646-3500
Assemblyman Kevin O'Toole/973-696-2323

Senator William Gormley and Assemblyman Kevin O'Toole today said the Legislature should immediately act to implement the reforms suggested by the Benefits Review Task Force.

Specifically, in line with the Murphy Report's suggestions, Gormley proposes raising the standard retirement age from 55 to 60, one job for one pension, and requiring employees to contribute to their health care costs.

"Mr. Murphy's appearance today is three months late. We should have started the process by hearing from Mr. Murphy," said Gormley, R-Atlantic. "New Jersey's benefits system is on the verge of bankruptcy, which demands urgent action. I recommend that the committee vote on the Murphy Report recommendations next week."

"In my opinion, the report compiled by Mr. Murphy is the single most important document I have seen in all my years of service in the Legislature," said O’Toole, R-Bergen, Essex, and Passaic. "If given adequate consideration, the report promises to have a tremendous impact on New Jersey's longstanding financial issues."

In today's meeting of the Joint Committee on Public Employee Benefits Reform, Philip Murphy, chairman of the Benefits Review Task Force, testified on the reforms outlined in the task force's report to the public. The recommendations in the report include:

-Ensure government meets it obligation to its workers;
-Put a stop to the abuses and “gaming� of the system;
-Implement structural reforms of pension benefits;
-Enact structural reforms of health care benefits; and
-Strengthen process for review of benefit enhancements.

"The testimony presented to the committee by the task force was very disheartening," added O'Toole. "It confirmed that our worst fears have actually come to fruition. Government inaction has in fact made New Jersey's broken public employee benefits system even worse."

Mr. Murphy estimated that in the one year since the report was issued the combined unfunded liability in pension and health care benefits has grown from $40 billion to $50 billion.

Gormley and O'Toole said they reject Senator Nicholas Scutari's suggestion to have the committee vote on its set of reforms as one large measure.

"Voting on the reforms as one large measure is a tactic designed to provide legislators with an excuse to outright reject some of the more politically sensitive proposals," Gormley stated.

"We should have an opportunity to vote on every reform individually to ensure every idea is properly scrutinized," said O'Toole. "The only way to guarantee transparency is to discuss the individual proposals."

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For the complete report, please go to: http://www.state.nj.us/benefitsreview/final_report.pdf