Two new pieces at NJ Spotlight — one on Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson’s decision not to grant an injunction against a state move to withhold its pension payments as part of a budget-balancing measure and a profile, posted yesterday, on Bryan Miller of Heeding God’s Call.
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Author: hankkalet
Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.
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Hank Kalet 
The COLA has already been blasted into oblivion for current and future retirees. The intent of Christie and right wingers is to get rid of public sector defined benefit pensions. How dare these middle class workers have pensions, the nerve of these people. Never mind that the pension trust fund is full of public employees' money, their money that was taken out of each and every paycheck over decades. Both parties have not made adequate contributions to the pension fund since 1995. Contrary to what some folks say, the pension fund was fully funded when Florio left office.
Christie has so far given $3.5 billion in tax breaks, subsidies, tax abatements and sweetheart deals to the corporations and the wealthy. The rich and the corporations are not paying their fair share in taxes, quite the opposite, they are given even more tax breaks so they can create jobs in China, Vietnam or Mexico. But let's blame NJ's economic woes on teacher pensions because that is so much more satisfying and just plain fun.