Sunday, June 26, 2011

Chris Christie wins BIG against Unions

New Jersey lawmakers on Thursday approved a broad rollback of benefits for 750,000 government workers and retirees, the deepest cut in state and local costs in memory, in a major victory for Gov. Chris Christie and a once-unthinkable setback for the state’s powerful public employee unions.

The Assembly passed the bill 46 to 32, as Republicans and a few Democrats defied raucous protests by thousands of people whose chants, vowing electoral revenge, shook the State House. Leaders in the State Senate said their chamber, which had already passed a slightly different version of the bill, would approve the Assembly version on Monday. Mr. Christie, a Republican, was expected to sign the measure into law quickly.

.....The legislation will sharply increase what state and local workers must contribute for their health insurance and pensions, suspend cost-of-living increases to retirees’ pension checks, raise retirement ages and curb the unions’ contract bargaining rights. It will save local and state governments $132 billion over the next 30 years, by the administration’s estimate, and give the troubled benefit systems a sounder financial footing, mostly by shifting costs onto workers.
Read the full story HERE.

Here is Governor Christie discussing this acheivement on the Today Show with Matt Lauer:

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Christie really does have a way with words.

Anonymous said...

People are beginning to realize that all of the wonderful benefits and salaries that public employees unions receive are gained at the cost of the taxpayers. Does that mean that public employees should not be compensated? No. But neither should they receive far more benefits and wages than their counterparts in the private sector.

AZ