NEW BRUNSWICK — A registered Democrat and a Republican governor joined forces Wednesday to tout the benefits of sick-pay reform.
“I support him,” lifelong city resident Frank Deiner Jr., 82, said of Gov. Chris Christie. “I’m a registered Democrat, but I vote independently. I think this is an important issue that needs to be changed. This costs taxpayers a lot of money every year.”

In New Brunswick, the average property taxpayer as of today is on the hook for more than $1,300 in property tax payments just to pay already accumulated sick time, Christie said.

According to the Christie administration, in New Brunswick, the total accumulated liability is more than $14.5 million, or $1,330 for every property taxpayer in the city — the highest per-taxpayer total in the state — on property taxes that already average $6,392.

“That is real money no matter who you are,” Christie said. “If you’re a retiree on a fixed income, that is a lot of money for you to have to be putting out for paying people not to be sick, which is essentially what we are doing here.”

Christie said that in Elmwood Park in Bergen County, $1.2 million will be paid to seven officers, including the police chief, who retired at year’s end. The police chief is getting a payout of $289,000, in addition to his $148,700 annual pension, and the deputy police chief will receive about $194,000 in a sick-leave payout, the governor added.

The payouts are funded largely by taxpayers, and the practice must be stopped, Christie said. Most towns have a difficult time coming up with the money, and some will have to borrow it, he added.

Deiner cited an article about similar happenings in New Brunswick, in which a police chief walked away with $376,234 in unused time on top of an annual $115,000 pension, and a police captain with $310,079 in sick and vacation time on top of a $103,934 pension.

“I feel this is really unfair,” Deiner said. “I never heard of anyone in industry getting sick pay when they leave. You used to get a watch when you retire. Now in New Brunswick, you can retire for close to $400,000.”

Christie called on legislators to step up to the plate and pass the legislation.

“This is something that regular people of the state understand,” Christie said. “It’s crazy that you have members of the Legislature that say this is not a significant amount of money.”

He said his proposal doesn’t take away from what they’ve already accumulated.

“What I’m saying is let’s stop running the cash register on this,” he said. “Let’s stop accumulating more and more. We’ve got about $825 million accumulated now and that’s accumulating more and more every day, and that’s why there is the urgency to get this done in the next five days because every day that passes, we’re adding more.”

Christie said a $15,000 or $7,500 cap makes no sense.

The governor also took exception to arguments that if you don’t pay people, they will commit fraud and use their sick time when they’re not sick.

“The low bar we have in government now is that we have to pay people not to commit fraud,” he said.

Christie said the employees receive good salaries, lifetime medical benefits and a pension for their services and don’t need to be honored by a huge payout on the way out the door.

He also said he doesn’t believe the legislation would result in a mass exodus.

When asked about being the No. 2 on the Republican presidential ticket, Christie said he thinks that is unlikely, but he will support the former Massachusetts governor as much as he can.
“I’m not going to close the door on anything,” Christie said. “It doesn’t make sense for me to do that. It would be disrespectful to Gov. Romney to say no to something that hasn’t been offered, but I’ve been very clear, both publicly and privately, that I love this job and this is whereI want to stay.”

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012301050009

So what do most on ireporters think?

I support this legislation, but I am not a public employee..