Retired police officers, firefighters and State Troopers should not have to wait another 25 years for cost-of-living adjustments while New Jersey continues spending billions on other priorities, Assemblyman Alex Sauickie said Friday.
Sauickie challenged State Treasurer Aaron Binder’s suggestion during budget hearings this year that restoring automatic COLAs could remain another quarter-century away because state-administered pension systems have not reached the funding levels required under current law.
“Twenty-five years? Tell that to the retired police officer, firefighter or State Trooper who has already gone more than a decade without a cost-of-living adjustment while the price of groceries, electricity, property taxes, insurance and practically everything else has gone through the roof,” Sauickie (R-Ocean) said.
Automatic COLAs for retirees in New Jersey’s state-administered pension systems were suspended in 2011 until specified funding thresholds are reached. Sauickie said lawmakers can provide relief without waiting decades for the pension systems to hit those benchmarks.
He is the author and prime sponsor of A1168, which would restore COLAs for qualifying Police and Firemen’s Retirement System retirees, and a sponsor of A4623, which would provide similar adjustments for State Police Retirement System retirees. Sauickie also has a draft bill and says teachers are next.
Rather than immediately placing the additional cost on the pension systems, the bills call for state appropriations to fund the COLAs. A1168 would also cover local PFRS costs and reimburse local employers.
“We can strengthen the pension systems and restore COLAs. We don’t have to choose between the two,” Sauickie said. “The real obstacle is not whether New Jersey has money. It is where Trenton chooses to spend it.”
Sauickie said the recently enacted $60.7 billion fiscal year 2027 state budget demonstrates that money can be found when Trenton makes something a priority.
He pointed to a $120 million financial assistance package for Jersey City, the $20.2 million announced by the Sherrill administration for immigration-related legal services and a $50,000 appropriation for the Paterson Cricket League.
“Before another politically connected project, another bailout, another special-interest appropriation or another line item gets slipped into a $60 billion budget, we should take care of the people who served this state and were promised retirement security,” Sauickie said.
Sauickie’s PFRS legislation generally applies to retirees who have been receiving benefits for at least 10 years and provides inflation-linked adjustments on benefits up to $75,000, with more limited adjustments above that amount. It does not provide retroactive payments. His State Police legislation follows a similar structure.
Sauickie said lawmakers do not have to accept the decades-long timeline projected under current law.
“The bills are written. The funding mechanism is there,” Sauickie said. “Bring them up for a vote.”
“We don’t have to wait 25 years. We can start restoring COLAs now.”
