The Public Employees' Retirement System voted 6-0 to hire private attorneys and "take all necessary and appropriate action to compel the governor" to make $3.8 billion in payments to the strained pension system over two years, instead of the $1.38 billion Christie is proposing amid a budget crisis.
With 280,000 active employees and 139,000 retirees as of 2013, PERS is by far the largest pension fund in New Jersey. The board is made up of financial managers representing Christie's administration and unionized workers. Its decision to join the court battle against Christie is a sign of growing unrest among workers and retirees over the Republican governor's budget plan.
Board Chairman Thomas Bruno said Christie signed a pension overhaul in 2011 that gave public workers a contractual right to the full $3.8 billion over two years. Under the state and federal constitutions, New Jersey cannot break its contracts, unions argue.
"We have more than 10,000 letters here," said Bruno, a retired state worker and former official with the Communications Workers of America union. "The board understands that it has ... a fiduciary obligation."
PERS members said they expect to join more than a dozen unions challenging Christie's maneuver at a hearing next Wednesday before Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson in Trenton. Another pension fund, the Police and Firemen's Retirement System, has also voted to take legal action to block Christie's plan.
