NJ Public Employees Turn to High Courts Over Pensions

New Jersey’s public employee pension system has long been embroiled in financial difficulties. Challenges to steps the administration of Gov. Chris Christie (R) has taken to address them found their way into the dockets, and now are being bumped upstairs to the state — and federal — Supreme Courts.

Public employee unions in the Garden State are seeking redress from the New Jersey Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court, reports Pensions & Investments.

The challenge the unions are bringing to the state Court are a continuation of its action against the August 2011 suspension of the cost of living adjustment for all New Jersey Pension Fund retirees. A state appeals court held for the unions in July 2014. In July 2015 the state Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments over the law enacted in 2011 under which the state suspended the COLA. P&I reports that the Court has not set a date for the proceedings.

But word will come from the federal Supreme Court soon — on Feb. 19, says P&I — on whether it will hear the unions’ argument seeking the return of $71.1 billion they say should not have been withheld from the New Jersey Pension Fund in the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2015. The New Jersey Supreme Court on June 9, 2015 had ruled that the Christie administration could cut contributions to the state’s public employee pension system.