To the Editor:
Assemblywoman Joan Quigley (D-Hudson) has introduced legislation to allow cities to defer up to half their state pension contribution for one year. If there is any logic to this bill, then it would make even more sense to defer 100 percent of this annual expense for all eternity.
Property taxpayers should understand that this pension deferral does not make the problem go away. It converts an annual expense into a long term liability, which would be paid down with interest. In other words, more government credit card financing. Taxpayers end up paying more in the long run.
The stated “reasoning” for this measure is that cities will be better able to meet this obligation at some unspecified year or decade when ratables dramatically rise. When has something like that ever happened? Even if there were a miraculous upturn in the economy, any increased revenues would be applied elsewhere.
Any elected municipal official who opts into this provision does a long term disservice to his or her community and should be voted out of office pronto. Such an official chooses short term political expedience over leadership.
The Quigley bill is precisely the type of legislation that the incoming governor has vowed to veto. Mr. Christie can’t take office soon enough.
RICHARD JOSEFOWICZ