Christie's salary cap doesn't apply to cops or firefghters
BY MICHAEL SYMONS • GANNETT STATE BUREAU • MAY 10, 2010 

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie's property tax reform package caps increases in teachers' pay at 2.5 percent and applies the same limit to arbitrators' awards for county and municipal employees, though it doesn't put that cap on raises negotiated by police officers, firefighters and other local employees.

Christie's months-in-the-making, 33-bill "tool kit" was formally announced Monday at a Statehouse news conference. Democrats didn't dismiss its contents but questioned why it was released as budget delibrations are intensifying and said it wouldn't help balance the state's budget.

Christie — with a bipartisan group of a half-dozen mayors to his right — said the plan, centered by a 2.5 percent cap on property tax increases with almost no exceptions, would finally tackle the root causes of high property taxes by reforming collective bargaining, civil service and public workers' benefits.

"If they pass these bills, I will sign them. Then they will become law, and then I will leave it to the mayors to have both the opportunity and responsibility to bring sanity back to their municipalities," Christie said.
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Democratic legislative leaders said they haven't had sufficient time to digest the proposals to fully assess them, saying they just received the package Friday night.

Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said an existing 4 percent cap enacted during former Gov. Jon Corzine's term has slowed the growth in property taxes and cited it as evidence Democrats are committed to reforms that work and pass constitutional muster.

"Gov. Corzine's cap at 4 percent worked. I know we get can get criticized for this publicly, but we went from 7 percent (increases) to 3.8 to 3.3, and I think we can get further on it," Sweeney said.

"We are not going to hastily react to a package of bills dropped on us during a period when we are examining other things with severe implications for all levels of government," said Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, D-Essex, citing in particular proposed school reforms the Christie administration wants approved by June 1.

In response to questions at his news conference, Christie said police officers and firefighters, as well as other local public employees, wouldn't be precluded from getting raises that exceed 2.5 percent.

"There is not a cap on salary increases. I want to leave that to the mayors and to the school boards to make those decisions on how they spend that money," said Christie.

"They would not be precluded from doing that. It is a 2.5 percent cap on the tax levy of municipalities, school boards and counties. So if mayors decided that the appropriate increase was a 3 or 3.5 percent increase, they have two options: Find the savings in other places in their budget to fund it, or put the increased rate on the ballot and make the case for why it's necessary," Christie said.

Local voters could decide to exceed the 2.5 percent in a referendum, though a supermajority of 60 percent would be required for approval.
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He said police officers and firefighters would help make that case in the neighborhoods where they live.

"Those folks have never had a problem making themselves vocal, making themselves known, about what they think their value is to the community. And candidly, I think most New Jerseyans value very much — as do I and the lieutenant governor — the extraordinary work of police and fire and teachers and municipal employees," Christie said.

Christie's office, however, also distributed summaries of the proposed legislation — which wasn't available Monday afternoon — that said there could be no school contract award in excess of a 2.5 percent cap, including salary, benefits and other economic provisions.

The municipal and county government portion of the proposal bars arbitrators from making contract awards that exceed the 2.5 percent cap.

New Jersey Education Association spokesman Steve Baker said he was less concerned about the difference than about the impact of a cap. If salaries had grown at 2.5 percent a year since collective bargaining was established in 1968, he said, the average teacher salary would have risen from $9,130 to $23,917 — rather than to its current average of around $63,000.

"In almost no time, you're in a situation where you're going backwards compared to almost every other profession," Baker said. "You're telling people coming into education that the money you're making now is the highest salary you're ever going to have, because your salary is going to grow smaller than the rate of inflation. In real terms, you're never going to get above a starting salary."

Even though the cap doesn't directly apply to law enforcement contracts, police union leaders said they had "serious concerns." The New Jersey State Policemen's Benevolent Association said local police departments in Massachusetts "suffered major layoffs" after a similar cap was instituted in 1982.

Michael Symons: msymons@gannett.com