Christie Visits South Jersey; Touts Tax Relief

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie today visited the home of Gary and Linda Cogan, 26-year residents of Mount Laurel, for his second consecutive day of conversations with property taxpayers to discuss the critical property tax relief his historic, bipartisan pension reforms are providing in their first year of implementation.

In total, Mount Laurel will save $557,557 in its 2012 budgets alone, including township savings of $509,221 and school district savings of $48,336 from the reforms signed into law on June 28, 2011.

Statewide, Governor Christie’s reforms will save New Jersey’s property taxpayers and local governments $267 million in 2012, making good on the Governor’s promise to drive down the skyrocketing cost of local government and to provide real, long term property tax relief.

“The $267 million in total first year savings realized from these bipartisan reforms means significant savings that are immediately benefitting overtaxed property taxpayers in communities across all across New Jersey. Mount Laurel’s taxpayers will see over $550,000 in 2012 savings from our pension reforms alone, with additional savings coming as we move forward with implementing health benefits reforms,” said Governor Christie.

“With a 2 percent cap on property taxes, a 2 percent cap on interest arbitration awards, and historic pension and health benefit reform, we are seeing the building blocks of long term property tax relief come into place. But we can and must go further with other common sense reforms like bringing an end to the abuse of sick and vacation day payouts and enacting real reform of our civil service system.”

The Governor’s bipartisan reforms are delivering for Burlington County taxpayers, with local governments in Burlington County experiencing savings of over $8.3 million for 2012 as a direct result of pension reform. While these savings come in the form of lowered pension contribution costs in local government budgets, Governor Christie has strongly urged county, municipal and school board officials to use these savings to provide property tax relief to their residents rather than spend these funds in other areas of their budget.

Governor Christie’s Reforms Provide Mount Laurel Taxpayers with $557,557 in Relief in 2012

Mount Laurel Township Savings in Police and Fireman’s Retirement Systems (PFRS): $470,337

Mount Laurel Township Savings in Public Employee Retirement System (PERS): $38,884

Mount Laurel Board of Education Savings in PERS: $48,336

Mount Laurel Total: $557,557

In addition, Governor Christie’s bipartisan health benefits reform law is providing $70 million in estimated savings for state and local governments in 2012 as a result of changes in retiree benefits and employee health care plans. State and local governments will achieve these savings as a result of public employees being able to choose from a much wider array of health care plans under the 2012 benefit structures for state-managed health plans and changes to Medicare Part D that reduce retiree prescription drug benefit costs. The health plan benefit structures were approved in separate actions by the Design Committees for the State Health Benefits Program (SHBP) and the School Employees Health Benefits Program (SEHBP) last week. The two committees were created by the landmark bipartisan health and benefits reforms Governor Chris Christie signed into law on June 28.

Governor Christie has acted on a commitment to deliver property tax relief to New Jersey families by fixing the underlying causes of the state’s property tax crisis. In addition to historic pension and health benefits reform, Governor Christie enacted a 2 percent cap on property tax increases to end the skyrocketing rise in taxes, a 2 percent cap on interest arbitration awards to control costs under the cap, a cap on superintendent salaries, increased education funding and maintained a stable level of municipal aid.

Because of Governor Christie’s commitment to reverse two decades of irresponsible neglect of the pension system, New Jersey’s taxpayers will now realize substantial savings over the next three decades. The Governor’s historic pension and benefits reform law will provide more than $120 billion in savings to state and local governments.

· $79 Billion in State Contribution Savings: Over the next 30 years, the state pension contribution will be $148 billion, a projected savings of nearly $80 billion. Without reform, the state was projected to contribute $227 billion over the same period.

· $43 Billion in Local Government Contribution Savings: Over the next 30 years, local government pension contributions will be $70 billion, a projected savings of nearly $43 billion. Without reform, local governments were projected to contribute $113 billion over the same period.

The $267 million represents local government savings from the projected costs of pension contributions in PFRS and PERS had Governor Christie’s pension reforms not become law. The statewide, year over year savings in pension costs experienced by local governments between fiscal year 2011 and fiscal year 2012 is approximately $84 million.

A savings breakdown of Fiscal Year 2012 PFRS pension cost savings for each local government in New Jersey – municipalities, counties and other local government units – can be accessed at the Department of Treasury’s website here: http://www.state.nj.us/treasury/pensions/epbam/exhibits/pdf/2012-pfrs-comparison-revised-78.pdf

The local government savings breakdown for PERS, previously released on July 14, 2011, can be accessed here: http://www.state.nj.us/treasury/pensions/epbam/exhibits/pdf/2012-pers-comparison-revised-78.pdf