Bucco: Murphy Passes the Buck on Public Employee Pension & Health Benefit Costs to Property Taxpayers

Senator Anthony M. Bucco said Governor Phil Murphy is passing the buck to property taxpayers after his mismanagement led to surging costs in public employee pensions and health benefits for local governments.

“The Murphy administration has failed to control public employee health care costs and it’s done nothing to end pension abuses or enact cost-saving reforms,” said Bucco (R-25). “As a result of this mismanagement, towns are being hit with a 23% increase in their health insurance premiums this year while their pension bills are rising by more than 10%. It’s unbelievable that Governor Murphy’s big solution is to pass the buck to property taxpayers instead of trying to fix the problem.”

Towns that utilize the State Health Benefits Plan (SHBP) to provide health insurance to their employees were hit with a massive 22.8% increase in premiums this year after the Murphy administration failed to achieve savings that had been promised under several highly publicized initiatives.

Similarly, local governments were surprised to learn of double-digit increases in their pension costs this year that were silently posted online by the Murphy administration with no warning.

The Division of Local Government Services (DLGS) announced Wednesday that a number of major expenses, including health insurance and pension contributions, will be excluded from the regular municipal appropriations cap that limits annual spending increases to 2.5% or less.

The DLGS Local Finance Board also said that workers’ compensation insurance, garbage collection and disposal, recycling, and gas and diesel fuel costs would be exempted from the appropriations cap for the 2023 budget year.

“The municipal appropriations cap is designed to protect property taxpayers from big annual spending increases that translate into soaring tax bills,” Bucco added. “What’s the point of having a spending cap if everything is exempted? Governor Murphy just placed the full burden of paying for his mismanagement and President Biden’s soaring inflation squarely on the backs of New Jersey property taxpayers.”