The governor and state Legislature are making a huge mistake. Rather than taking a hardline stand against public corruption by forcing public employees who violate the public trust to forfeit their pensions, they are ready to place the entire issue on the contract negotiating table.
It’s a foolish move, as state Sen. John H. Adler (pictured), D-Camden, points out in an op-ed today in the Star-Ledger (unfortunately not available online).
Adler has sponsored to bills (here and here) that would strip pensions from public employees — elected and appointed — who violate the public trust. The bills would help curb rampant abuse by public officials — see Lynch, John, and others — helping to restore trust and eliminate what essentially is a corruption tax on New Jersey residents. In November, Adler offered the following statement:
“For too long, the abuse of power in New Jersey has been a factor in skyrocketing property taxes. Waste and fraud increase the cost of government to taxpayers who are looking for a break from soaring tax rates. We need to put strong penalties in place, to protect public dollars and the public trust in their elected representatives.”
Gov. Jon Corzine and the Legislature, however, have watered it down. A bill sponsored by state Senate President Richard Codey and Assemblywoman Nellie Pou would to remove many of the pension reforms proposed by the special Joint Legislative Session from the table, preferring to address most of them at the negotiating table.
Admittedly, negotiations could be the best way to handle some elements of the pension reform proposal — addressing the cost of health benefits, for instance — but the bulk of the changes proposed should be enacted through statute, including a ban on double-dipping (one official holding two offices, like Monroe Mayor Richard Pucci) and the Adler bills, which are designed to put an end to abuses like the ones that resulted in former state Senate President John Lynch getting 39 months in jail on Tuesday.
That’s the point that Sen. Adler, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, makes in his Ledger op-ed, criticizing the two-tiered approach being substituted.
It is abusurd to have different corruption penalties, including jail time and pension forfeiture, depending upon whether the corrupt official is or is not in a union.
He wants his bills past as a “clear and unequivocal statement that we are fed up with public corruption and we’re not going to take it anymore.”
Penalties should be the same for all public officials. Public integrity should always be non-negotiable.
Wednesday’s Courier-News offered the same take:
(W)hat’s to negotiate about taking pensions away from crooks? That’s something legislators should require of everyone earning taxpayer money, officials and workers alike. And there’s no reason not to begin with the public officials right now in getting those mandates in place.
Yet the forfeiture requirement was taken out of the pension reform bill being considered by lawmakers last week. Instead we’re still left with a pension board that decides if a corrupt official should lose the pension. In other words, the board provides another layer of bureaucracy to protect the criminals.
This seems a logical critique — even to someone like me who is very pro-union. Double standards are never good for anyone and would only further the erosion of trust in our government that has helped the right in its push for extreme deregulation.
It’s an unacceptible situation. As Barretta used to say, if you can’t do the time then don’t do the crime. New Jersey needs to make sure that crime by public officials does not pay.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
Hank Kalet 