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What about those that retire at 50 after 25 years? Do they go on Medicare, no they don't. They collect free healthcare until 65 when they get Medicare and the state then pays the supplement after that.
I had three school teachers as neighbors. As soon as they retired in their 50s they went to FL or NC. And that is part of the problem. As soon as NJ government employees retire they leave the state. No more taxes collected from them, and their checks all go out of state.
Look, I don't want to argue with you. Happy you are still in NJ working to make it a better state.
NJboy I do not consider our discussion arguing. I consider it providing factual data. If you are against the retirement system you have every right to your opinion. I just feel it is important that factual information be the basis.
The number of retirees in the teachers or state workers pension systems retiring before the age of 55 is very small. The average retirement age is over 60 for both pensions and will increase since the retirement age was raised to 60 then to 62 and it is now 65.
The majority of people soon to retire will also not receive free health care. You had to have had 25 years of service prior to around 2006 for free health care.
Now people pay up to 35% of the premium.
Is there a pension funding problem- yes. It was entirely created by previous governors not making the required contribution. That contribution was about 1 to 2% of the State budget. I do not consider that excessive. Making up those payments is going to be a problem especially since the investment earnings on those funds also need to be made up.
I think most people do not understand the true cost of the pension and how it is funded. They read about some excess and assume that applies to everyone when in reality it is a small segment.
As soon as NJ govt. employees retire they leave the state
Less than 1 in 5 FLEE the state. I love it here.
about 21 percent — outside the state. The top five states the money goes to are Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and New York, the latter two possibly because workers live in those neighboring states but work in New Jersey.
No matter what, a teacher gets what they put in right?
I am not sure what you are asking. Can you provide a specific situation.
They do get all of their direct contributions back but not the exact earnings or the employer contribution like you would with a 401k where each year the money is yours
While I'm sure you're pointing out possible overall increases to NJ taxpayers (property tax hikes which are set at the municipal level, etc.) I've seen many other posts mentioning Detroit and other cities going bankrupt trying to use this as some sort of future prediction for the state of NJ. However, states cannot declare bankruptcy so this is not an apples to apples comparison.
I haven't read all of the posts but, people should be aware that my wife is a teacher and we use here NJ State health insurance plan. Her bi-weekly deductions are equal to what mine would be if I had the husband/wife plan. I work in the financial services industry.
She is paying what I would be paying for my premier plan. So if there is some idea that public workers don't pay anything, they need to get their facts straight.
Being a teacher today if NOT what it use to be. We are turning our schools into Walmarts.
No matter what, a teacher gets what they put in right?
A NJ pension is not like a 401K......it's not "your" money......the money taken from you (notice I didn't say invested because the employee has NO choice on the amount taken or where/how it is invested) goes into the various systems by all active employees and is invested/controlled by the pension board and the financial entities hired to take care of all that. When one retires they are not getting their own money/investments back but a set payment based on years of service, age, etc.
So....all the years or amounts an employee paid in goes into the system - they are then paid out when they retire but the reserves keep getting added to by current active employees (like the employee who just retired had been paying into previously so those that retired before him continued to get a pension).
This is why the pension system can never totally be changed over to a 401K system like Gov. Tubbo has suggested....there would be no way for the state to meet it's existing retiree pension payments if they gave all actives their contributions back to go into an individual employee 401K - it would totally deplete the reserves there to pay retirees....plus, the active employees would then have a claim that they should have interest on that money since they could have or it should have earned interest over the years.....for example, an employee with say 15 years in the system could claim to be out and out screwed (and would be 100% correct) if the state just gave him back what he contributed......the issue would be those 15 years or whatever of interest the employee could have gotten on his own money and compounded if he had control of it from the start.
I haven't read all of the posts but, people should be aware that my wife is a teacher and we use here NJ State health insurance plan. Her bi-weekly deductions are equal to what mine would be if I had the husband/wife plan. I work in the financial services industry.
She is paying what I would be paying for my premier plan. So if there is some idea that public workers don't pay anything, they need to get their facts straight.
Being a teacher today if NOT what it use to be. We are turning our schools into Walmarts.
why are you on her plan and she isn't on yours?
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As soon as NJ govt. employees retire they leave the state
