Public Worker Salaries & Benefits Increased to 45% of State Budget

State pensions, benefits also grow at rapid clip

Since 1998, the costs of public worker salaries and benefits have increased by more than $4.2 billion.

That's 45 percent of the total increase in the state budget, according to the state Treasury Department documents provided to lawmakers.

Since 1998, just the cost of health insurance and retirement benefits for employees and retirees increased by 201 percent, from $1.56 billion to $4.69 billion —nearly seven times the rate of inflation.

About 450,000 teachers, state workers and other public employees contribute to the state's various pension systems.

Rae Roeder, who represents 7,000 state workers as president of Communications Workers of America Local 1033, said she doesn't want to hear about having teachers, police or other state employees pay more for their health care or pension costs.

State workers already contribute 5.5 percent of their pay to pensions and 1.5 percent of their salaries toward health insurance.

When asked if she could empathize with workers in private industry, who typically pay more for health insurance and their retirement plans, she said, "Private industry has flushed its workers down the toilet."

She said she wouldn't participate in any conversation about trimming the costs of state workers' benefits.

"Now, I see the conversation going down the harebrained road of the right-wing nuts. So I'm done with this conversation," she said, hanging up the phone.

"We have no one to blame but ourselves," said Michael P. Riccards, executive director of the nonpartisan Hall Institute of Public Policy in Trenton. "We're an old state with a lot of old institutions. A lot of situations need to be changed. And neither political party has a reform caucus that can make it happen."

$33 Billion and counting

Although the size of the state budget has nearly doubled in the last 10 years, the governor keeps telling us we're broke.

So, where has the money gone? How could spending jump from $16.8 billion in 1998 to $33.4 billion in 2008 — and we still can't pay the bills?

You'll find most of the money if you look at three categories: spending on education — especially extra aid to low-income schools; salaries and benefits for government workers and retirees; and property tax relief.

In the 31 neediest school districts, called Abbott districts, it cost an average of $14,431 to educate each pupil, according to a review of 2007 school spending figures. That was $2,280 higher than the average per-pupil cost for all public school students last year.

Corporate scholarships

There's only one thing lacking in the Abbott districts — academic quality, said Dan Gaby, executive director of Excellent Education for Everyone. His group, known as E3, favors state financial support of private schools. Gaby served as vice president of the state Board of Education in the 1970s under former Democratic Gov. Brendan T. Byrne.

Despite the $30 billion spent on education in the Abbott districts over the last decade, standardized state test scores show little improvement, except in the elementary grades, according to state Department of Education data.

In some of the poorest districts, dropout rates remain high. Asbury Park High School's graduation rate was 63.5 percent last year. Camden High School's graduation rate was 49.8 percent. In 2007, the state's average graduation rate was 92.3 percent.

"We could spend half the money and get better results. The children are out of time, and the taxpayers are out of money," Gaby said.

Read the entire APP article HERE