With the support of mayors around the state, including West Caldwell Mayor Joseph Tempesta and North Caldwell Mayor Joseph Alessi, as well as the mayors from Millburn and West Orange, Gov. Chris Christie held a press conference Thursday calling on the state legislature to pass sick and vacation day payouts for public employees.
#13;
This is the right thing to do, commented Tempesta in a phone interview on Friday. This is a benefit that cannot be born by the taxpayers. It is too rich, Tempesta added.
#13;
Tempesta explained sick days earned by public employees 30 years ago when they were at a significantly lower pay scale have to be paid out at retirement at their current pay rate. It has grown exponentially, and it is happening around towns across the state, he stated.
#13;
As mentioned by Christie in his press conference, vacation and sick day pay reform is needed to help towns stay within their two percent property tax caps.
#13;
Tempesta commented he knows of towns that have had to issue bonds in order to payout unused vacation and sick days to departing employees. It is scary, he commented.
#13;
At his press conference, Christie stated the state Legislature has had almost 19 months to act on specific bills to reform vacation and sick pay. It is past time for the legislature to stand up and give mayors the tools they are asking for to provide savings to taxpayers, including a complete end to the inexplicable practice of paying scarce taxpayer dollars for unused sick days, Christie stated.
#13;
The state legislature had passed a bill that would cap future payouts at $15,000, but the governor vetoed it; his goal is to eliminate the payouts completely.
#13;
State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, who sat in on the governors press conference, said Democrats have made attempts to work with Christie.
#13;
We need to ensure that in our rush to reform the system, we do not push long-time workers to the exit. If we do, local governments will be faced with having to pay all of those retiring workers now, inadvertently putting themselves in an even more tenuous position, Weinberg stated.
#13;
According to a chart released by the NJ Department of Community Affairs, as it stands now Caldwell would owe just under a million dollars in employee accrued sick and vacation days, North Caldwell would owe almost a half a million, and West Caldwell would owe about $1.3 million.
#13;
For the average homeowner, this would amount to $390 in property taxes for Caldwell, $217 for North Caldwell and $264 for West Caldwell.
#13;
Other Essex County towns range from the lowest being Fairfield at a little more than $11 and Verona with $19 per household to the highest being Newark with $771, East Orange with $661 and West Orange with $623. Many fell somewhere in between some of those being Bloomfield at $372, Livingston at $364, Montclair at $218, Cedar Grove at $203 and Belleville at $171 per household.
#13;
Caldwell Mayor Ann Dassing and North Caldwell Mayor Joseph Alessi were not available for comment.