Gov. Phil Murphy shares Senate President Steve Sweeney’s (D-West Deptford) openness to expanding the state’s pension payment past the $6.4 billion payment he offered in his budget proposal.
“I saw what the Senate president said. I would call myself open-minded as well,” Murphy said. “It’s still too early to know where the chips fall but I like what I heard from him, and I’m in a similar mindset at the moment.”
Sweeney on Thursday said he was “open to an additional payment,” though he noted budget talks between the legislature and front office would begin in earnest this coming week.
Politico New Jersey, citing unnamed sources familiar with budget negotiations, was first to report discussions about an expanded pension payment.
Even at the current amount, the payment would mark the first time the state has met its full pension obligation in 25 years. Murphy has stepped up pension payments each year he’s been in office.
“I’m proud on the enormous progress we’ve made on the pension front,” he said. “No governor of either side of the aisle has done what we’ve done.”
Governors of both parties have underfunded the state’s pensions obligations for decades, a practice that ballooned New Jersey’s debt and led rating agencies to regard the Garden State with a degree of skepticism.
The underfunded pension debt was a major factor in the state’s credit rating downgrade last year.
Discussions about increasing the coming fiscal year’s pension payment come amid a swell of state revenues. Federal money, $4 billion in bonded funds and better-than-anticipated tax collections contributed to the cash surge.