Steinhardt says Senate should reject Muoio nomination

Republican State Chairman Doug Steinhardt says that the New Jersey Senate should vote down Gov. Phil Murphy’s nomination of Elizabeth Muoio as State Treasurer.

State Sen. Kristin Corrado (R-Totowa),who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, is hinting that she will lead a fight to deny Muoio, a former Assemblywoman and Mercer County Democratic Chair, Senate confirmation for the post.

“Phil Murphy and Liz Muoio are sticking another dagger in the dying carcass of New Jersey’s public-sector pension system,” said Steinhardt. “This shortsighted scheme concocted to close a budget shortfall will cheat the pension fund out of at least $238 million in contributions this year alone. We’ve all seen this “D” movie before. Democratic, actuarial book cooking was the slippery slope that got New Jersey’s public pension system into its current mess. Now, instead of solutions, Murphy and Muoio propose to compound our already perilous pension problems.”

Steinhardt says that Murphy and Muoio have increased the assumed rate of return for the state’s public employee pension system.  He claims they have artificially inflated the rate from 7% to 7.5%.

“Arbitrarily changing the rate of return does nothing to help secure the futures of hard working New Jersey employees,” said Corrado. “Liz Muoio and the Governor together are attempting to sweep the problems of our public pension system under the rug and we are barely two months into the new administration.”

Corrado says that legislative oversight is needed.

“As acting Treasurer Liz Muoio is making these decisions without having been vetted by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. We should quickly meet with her before too many decisions like this are made unchecked,” said Corrado.

Steinhardt said that a warning by Moody’s, an independent rating agency, is a signal that Murphy needs a more qualified candidate for State Treasurer.

“I call on the State Senate to post Liz Muoio’s hearing, vote her down, and put someone in that office with a proper sense of fiscal responsibility,” said Steinhardt.  “New Jersey’s 9 million residents deserve nothing less.”