LaBruno won’t support Path to Progress

Dumont Councilman Andrew LaBruno has announced that he will not support for the Path to Progress, a set of fiscal reforms being pushed by Senate President Steve Sweeney.

“This is a path to poverty, not progress, and continuing to promote trickle-down policies is a slippery slope which will force current and future public workers to seek employment outside of New Jersey,” LaBruno said. “This is not the right direction for the state of New Jersey or its working families.”

The councilman, who is running for Republican Mayor James Kelly’s seat, said his opposition to the measures deal mostly with its pension reforms. LaBruno said he and two of the council’s other members are vested in two of the state’s retirement funds.

Kelly is not seeking re-election when his term expires at the end of this year.

“I speak for myself when I say, as a State, we need to find a way to keep our promises to our employees as we also stabilize taxes and become fiscally responsible. This is a principle that guides my work on the Dumont Council,” LaBruno said. “These pension funds have been raided and mismanaged for decades and not at the fault of our employees. It’s time our state lawmakers do better and start thinking outside the box instead of inside the pockets of our working families.”