New Jersey's pension system for public employees costs more than most other states while offering "generous" benefits that are increasingly going toward more retirees than active employees, according to a new report.
One retirement fund, for police and firefighters, had more people collecting pension benefits in 2019 than current workers, and two others were on a similar trajectory — meaning those funds are less able to handle investments risks, the analysis by the fiscally conservative think tank Garden State Initiative found.
All this is despite years of increasing payments by the state that reached a record of nearly $7 billion this year. Without making policy changes for tens of thousands of public employees, New Jersey's political leaders will likely face difficult choices on how to use taxpayer dollars to stabilize the pension funds, the group said.