Gov. Christie spars with teacher at Kenilworth Town Hall

so what's your question of inner thank you for taking it so lightly I'm gonna be arrested so why don't you ask me the question okay it's a little difficult good can I wait one minute please okay thank you for taking my question Jerry welcome I'm here today to express my concerns on the public school teacher and I've heard you talking a lot about numbers and figures and the charts please hear my story because I I feel I represent thousands of others of state workers particularly teachers I've been a teacher for 27 years I never went into it for the money never wanted never expect it to be rich I love teaching I still do and I'm blessed when I started teaching in 1985 I started at $12,000 where my friends who went to college as well and went into the corporate world they started at 5060 thousand and laughed at me how could you take a job with that I didn't think anything of it because again I didn't I never expected or wanted to be rich it doesn't mean anything to me I make a difference every day in the kids lives I won Teacher of the Year five years ago and I think I'm good that being said governor I have worked and I started a $12,000 then it went up to eighteen five counting on those benefits the pension when I retired and I really feel that you are favoring the affluent really yes I do so I do how I feel with the the corporate tax benefits that you're giving to corporations the Exxon I'd like you to please address that that Exxon deal yeah I you don't talk about that I don't I know that you could have gotten more money on the dollar you do I know I really did you know that governor I do you know that I want to know how you know that because you're a teacher yes and you're standing in front of students every day conveying to them facts yeah things that they need to learn so I'd like to understand you're in analysis of how you know that in a 10-year long court case that you have enough detail to know can you believe it like morning well no because I'd like to know what you know because you started off by saying I know you could have gotten more money and so that's what is rare change that but then you could you enlighten me then I'm not here to be bullied I'm not a bully by the way you're not being bullied because you're asking me questions I get to ask you questions back if you're going to make an assertion if you're gonna make an assertion of fact as a teacher mm-hmm who people in the community respect as a truth teller then I'd like to know where you get your information to say to this entire group I know you could have gotten more money from my reading if I'm wrong of what if I'm governor could you please enlighten me well I will but once you finish your question I'll light you on all of it okay I have read in the newspaper that you could have gotten more from Exxon and therefore perhaps that could have gone to the pension or or perhaps you did address taxing the millionaires a little bit more what about was there a cost to for the Pearson testing did that cost a lot in other words in other words what I'm saying is in my mind it's a matter of priorities and I do feel that to a certain extent you are throwing state workers under the bus really yes I do feel that by the way I've made as you heard 4.2 billion dollars in payments to the pension system in the last five years when the previous five governors over 15 years made three point four billion dollars in payments 800 million dollars less in 15 years than I've made in five I made reforms to the pension system in 2011 which if we had not done that the pension system would be significantly compromised today lastly you're talking about needing another three billion dollars three billion dollars a year every year to pay for the benefits that you're saying you want to receive now your salary started at $12,000 it went to eight thousand dollars and I'm sure it's not eighteen thousand dollars today only twenty-seven years now what has happened over the course of time in New Jersey is that teacher salaries have gone up significantly markedly from where they were in the mid 80s in fact in the mid 80s teachers were very poorly paid in New Jersey because of senator Kane's father in 1985 he gave a significant increase to teacher payments during that period of time and now because local school boards have negotiated that up until the time that the cap was put into effect four years ago teacher salaries were going up at a significantly higher level than inflation in New Jersey over the course of the last twenty years and so the circumstances are not nearly the same as they were in 1985 fact is your Union over the course of time has asked for significantly higher benefits more expensive benefits that your union knew the state could not afford and that local school districts could not afford property taxes went up seventy percent in the last ten years largely on the back of increased education spending since at least two-thirds of every property tax bill if not more goes to paying of the public schools that's on top of the twelve billion dollars this year that the state is giving directly back to school districts to pay for public school true but several years ago governor you did cut too no no in fact today we pay more today and in four out of the five years of my governorship we have increased aid to the public school system in four out of the five years and the one year went down was because federal funding of 1 billion dollars was eliminated because President Obama did not renew the stimulus plan that spent a billion dollars in New Jersey in one year not state money federal money that was a one-shot non-recurring revenue that came from the federal government in 2009 so we have not reduced spending on public schools in fact we've increased the amount of state money that's spent in public schools every year every year in fact we pay seventeen thousand seven hundred dollars per pupil per year in New Jersey that is the highest per pupil rate of pay of any state in America so it does not add up I know you don't want to talk about the numbers but the numbers don't add up in fact if we do what we need to do here your pension will be protected but you can't have Platinum Plus health benefits anymore can't have them when I became governor teachers in the state paid nothing towards their health insurance zero towards their health insurance there's not a class of employees in this state who pay nothing towards their health insurance the fact is this system needs to be rejiggered because it is unaffordable and you cannot have Platinum Plus benefits so I understand what you believe you're entitled to it's not an entitlement I didn't title meal we've earned it how big you a a fraction of the money for the benefits you're going to get you will take out in pension hundreds of thousands of dollars more than you put in in health benefits you get $26,000 a year subsidy on your health benefits a $26,000 a year subsidy every year by the way through through death not just while you're working but through death it is it's the numbers simply don't add up I would love to be able to stay in here till you know what no problem we'll pay for all of it now as to the Exxon case what you may not understand is that the Exxon case is going to get a lot more than 225 million dollars Exxon has to pay for the cleanup in Lindon and in the other refinery in Rahway without any restriction on the amount of cost them it has to be cleaned up back to the condition that's acceptable by the DEP and whatever that costs Exxon they have to pay it on top of that they're paying another 225 million dollars so no one knows at this point exactly how much it's going to cost but it's going to cost significantly more than 225 million dollars and in fact the DEP Commissioner who started this suit back then said the whole thing should only be a few hundred million dollars we're two hundred and twenty five million dollars for the trouble of having sued them plus cleanup plus cleanup so you know the fact is that none of that by the way none of that helped to solve the pension problem because even if I got double that from Exxon I got 450 million so now we could take 225 million to put it towards a pension we need three billion dollars a year additional every year every year for as long as the eye can see okay okay so and what you're saying and I and I don't want to take up any more time but we do have to consider the fact that four years teachers were initially receiving the lower salaries right four years because of the pension because the payout would be at the end and you're going by the way charts they 127 years you're going to receive your pension the only way you won't is if we don't make these changes notice that the changes I talked about don't reduce your pension one time they don't reduce your payout one dime you freeze it for new members and new members don't get in what you lose is you go from Platinum plus benefits to gold benefits that's what you lose now to be quite candid I don't think there's anybody in this society given what it costs who deserves Platinum Plus health benefits it just is unaffordable to pay thirty one thousand dollars a year every year for health benefits and twenty six thousand of that being subsidized by the taxpayers and by the way before I got here all thirty one thousand was subsidized by the taxpayers teachers made no contribution to their health insurance so fact is anyone would look at the all in deal you're getting a twenty six thousand dollar subsidy on your health insurance from the day you start till the day you die every year and you're getting a defined benefit pension that is thirteen thousand dollars higher than what the national average is for teachers so add that on top of it now we're talking about a nearly forty thousand dollar subsidy every year that the taxpayers of New Jersey are giving the teachers that is in addition to your salary in addition to your salary and that stays through the entire time until you pass away I understand that so you know at some point at some point these folks can't afford to pay that anymore they simply can't I'm a taxpayer too I understand but what you pay in taxes is a fraction a fraction as one person towards what's being contributed to what you're getting and so I didn't come out here and say you shouldn't get what you're getting and under the plan that I put forward you're going to get exactly what you're been promised but let me tell you how you won't want to stand up and fight this and say no governor you should just pay it it's not possible for it to be paid there are not enough taxes in this state to be raised there are not enough exon settlements to be made to be able to pay an extra three billion dollars a year every year for as far as the eye can see so here's what will happen at nine billion dollars a year payout with eighty billion dollars a year in the fund do the math it will not be long until the pension system will be broke and then when it's broke like it was in Detroit so this is not a theoretical argument this happened it happened not only in Detroit but in a couple of smaller municipalities too fact is when it goes broke then there's no place else to go and so your choice is do you want to have the type of reform that's going to be necessary to secure your retirement future or do you want to roll the dice so you roll the dice listen it's going to happen long after I'm gone so it's gonna happen when someone else's watch and the easiest thing in the world for me to be to do would be just say hey I'll make whatever payments I can make you guys keep doing what you're doing and best of luck but the fact is that it is not sustainable it is not sustainable when combined with the salaries that have been increased over the course of time and with the taxes that have been raised over the course of time to support those salaries it's unsustainable and anybody who comes into a room like this and tells you anything different is just as guilty as all the governors who came before me who made these promises and had no pathway to pay for them I said this to the firefighters when I met with them five years ago and they booed me because I wanted pension reform I said you know I don't get it why you booing the first guy to tell you the truth you think I want to come in this room and give anything but good news I'm in politics I'd love to give nothing but good news not but I can't I simply can these charts the numbers are the numbers they don't lie this is what they are and you could wish it away but wishing the way ain't going to be the solution to this problem and when it goes broke and you have no pension and no health benefits that's going to be a really sad and sorry day and an irresponsible day for not only the leaders of this state but for the leaders of your Union because they're supposed to be there to protect you to a part of protecting you is telling you the truth and the truth is they know this isn't affordable either they know it's not can't be afforded thank you

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Length: 14min 18sec (858 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 01 2015