Something astonishing happened in New Jersey last week. A majority Democratic legislature and a Republican governor agreed on a measure that will cut benefits for the state’s 750,000 employees and retirees. Like Wisconsin and other states that are being forced to deal with large budget deficits caused mostly by sweetheart deals struck in more prosperous times between politicians who need votes and labor unions who deliver them, New Jersey couldn’t afford to go on like this.
The new law “will sharply increase what state and local workers must contribute for their health insurance and pensions.” And in a major whack at rising costs, will also suspend “cost-of-living increases … raise retirement ages and curb the unions’ contract bargaining rights,” Richard Perez-Pena wrote in Thursday’s New York Times.
