TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – New Jersey’s top court sided with Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday in a fight with public worker unions over pension funds.
The state Supreme Court overturned a lower-court judge’s order that told the Republican governor and the Democrat-controlled Legislature to work out a way to increase pension contributions for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.
In a 5-2 ruling, the court said there wasn’t an enforceable contract to force the full payment.
One of Christie’s signature achievements as governor has been a 2011 deal on pensions for public workers. Employees had to pay more and the government was locked into making up for years of skipped or reduced contributions.
The state agreed to escalating payments over seven years to make up for all the times it has skipped contributions or put in less than what’s required to keep the funds healthy. Retirees saw their cost-of-living increases suspended, and current workers had to put in more and had retirement ages raised as part of the deal.