TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is considering a run for president in 2016, on Tuesday proposed a massive restructuring of the public employees’ pension system as he unveiled a $33.8 billion state budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year.
The budget for the year that starts July 1 would include no tax increases, keep flat spending for key items such as aid to schools, and barely budges on overall spending.
It proposes paying $1.3 billion into the pension system next year – a number that Christie touted as historic, but is nonetheless far less than the $3 billion the state agreed to pay as part of a 2011 agreement, which a judge ruled Monday was binding for the current year.
But Christie, who is appealing that ruling, did not acknowledge the potential impact.
Instead, he spent much of his budget address touting what he described as a “groundbreaking” and “unprecedented accord” with New Jersey’s largest teachers union, with which he had repeatedly sparred.