New Jersey State Senator Christopher “Kip” Bateman, R-Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Somerset, will submit legislation adopt the State Commission of Investigation’s recommendations released today regarding the practice of union officials being paid tens of millions of tax dollars for doing no public work.
“This shamefully abusive practice needs to stop immediately,” Bateman said. “Taxpayers in many communities already suffer the greatest property tax burdens that stem, in part, from rich union benefits. We absolutely should not have to pay for salaries, pensions and benefits for estranged public servants to conduct union business.”
Today’s SCI report found that between 2006 and 2011, $30 million in public moneys were spent on salaries, medical benefits, transportation and work equipment for public-sector labor representatives on paid release to conduct union business, including some people who held public job titles but did zero work. Today’s SCI report brings a wider scope and detail to a 2010 report by The Record that detailed how union officials released from government jobs while maintain pensionable incomes — which are paid by union dues and underwritten by state taxpayers.
“With support from Governor Christie and hopefully my legislative colleagues, I intend to protect taxpayers’ money from being wasted and make transparent this pastime of union officials collecting public paychecks for doing nothing,” Bateman concluded. “At the same time, I’m confident that we can accommodate public employees who are elected to perform union business without billing taxpayers for that time.”
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