Senate President: 'I've Never Been A Fan Of Merit Pay'

New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney is blocking any consideration of Governor Chris Christie's education reforms in part because Sweeney objects to merit pay.
Here's an excerpt from a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney won't allow two of the governor's major education overhaul proposals to get a vote, effectively killing the proposals before they were ever formally introduced as bills.The Democratic lawmaker said Monday that he objects to Christie's proposals to link teacher salaries to performance and to eliminate teacher seniority protections.
"I've never been a fan of merit pay. I don't believe in it," Sweeney said Monday.

Sweeney says he objects to merit pay because under a merit pay system a hard-working teacher may be passed over for a raise because he or she is not "a favorite."
Does Sweeney even know what merit pay is?
Merit pay is a system under which employees are evaluated according to a set of agreed-upon, objective standards and criteria. Goals, strategies and performance are regularly reviewed by the employee and the employer. A performance evaluation is rendered usually annually or semi-annually.
For almost my entire working life (and we're talking multiple decades, here) I've worked under a merit pay system as an at-will employee, meaning I could be fired at any time. I can assure you of this: I have rarely a been a candidate for the title of  "favorite."
But my salary steadily increased and I was never fired. I worked hard. I performed. I gave my all.
Most people work under some sort of merit evaluation (merit pay) system. Indeed, how else can the performance of employees be measured?
A system that gives automatic raises to all employees on a year-by-year basis seems like no system at all. It's certainly not a system that rewards effort since I may be minimally productive and you may be a powerhouse employee and, at the end of the year we will both get the same raise. Why bother to achieve? What's the motivation?
Is this with Sweeney advocates? Or is he simply playing to (and shoring up) his base (unions, etc.) as the November legislative election approach?

Click here to read more from the Inquirer story.