The $4.1 million spent by NJ Transit last year on public employees who cashed in unused sick and vacation time is another reminder of why taxpayers deserve the real sick pay reform sponsored by several Assembly Republicans. “This is a simple problem: New Jersey cannot afford these payouts any more. Our strong solution is not complicated: Stop these payouts,” Casagrande said. “Trenton Democrats in the Assembly have been dragging their feet on this issue for too long and only offer half-baked solutions that contain loopholes large enough to drive a train though, such as allowing public employees to call out sick for an entire year at taxpayer expense.
“It’s time for the legislators to do their jobs and end these payouts for beleaguered taxpayers throughout New Jersey,” Casagrande added.
Eighteen Assembly Republicans including Casagrande, Nancy Muñoz, Donna Simon and Declan O’Scanlon, are sponsors of A-2495 that would end future payouts for unused sick time.
“This is real reform that will take taxpayers off the hook for an expensive and wasteful practice,” Simon, R-Hunterdon, Somerset, Mercer and Middlesex, said. “If something is wrong, we should eliminate it once and for all. Preserving this waste, even at reduced amounts, is not the kind of leadership that taxpayers expect and deserve.”
Trenton Democrats in the Assembly have refused to consider this reform, preferring their watered-down bill that merely reduces the amount an employee can receive to $7,500.
“It is time to put an end to this outrageous practice of paying people for not working.” Muñoz, R-Union, Morris and Somerset, said. “We have offered comprehensive legislation that reflects the practice of the private sector and is fiscally responsible.”
O’Scanlon, R-Monmouth, the Assembly Republican Budget Officer, noted that the sick pay issue mirrors other Republican-led reform initiatives that capped property taxes, limited the amount of raises awarded at arbitration and achieved $120 billion in taxpayer savings through pension and health reform.
“Assembly Republicans have been leaders on issue after issue, even in the face of obstructionists, and this is another example,” O’Scanlon said. “Our sick pay reform is another logical, reasonable and comprehensive solution we have placed on the table with input from the administration and Senate with bipartisan compromise. We need the Trenton Democrats in the Assembly to join with us to end this wasteful and abusive practice.” TLS.
It’s election year and the Democrats are afraid to upset the Unions because they might loose the votes.
This is what the Democrats have been doing, passing Bills that are meaningless and not tackle real issues like this.
It’s time for a change!!!
this is the biggest flim flam going – public employees don’t get state disability, so they bank sick time in the event of an injury.
Now the towns will have to pay into the state disability fund for each and every employee.$$$
NO MONEY SAVED.
Wake up people, its just a political shell game by the Governor and his cronnies.
And by the way the Assembly members are exempt from this legislation.