< The 2014 Pension 40: The Battle Is On
9
Chris Christie
Governor
New Jersey
PNR
Chris Christie is a man with presidential ambitions, but as governor of New Jersey he confronts a major problem: The $79.7 billion state pension system has a funding ratio of 50.8 percent and a shortfall of $47.2 billion. If the problem is not addressed, New Jersey faces cuts to services, rising taxes (in an already high-tax state) and bond downgrades. The pension woes began with New Jersey’s last Republican governor, Christine Todd Whitman, who in 1997 issued $2.75 billion in bonds to fund the state’s pension payments and reduce the state’s outlays; subsequently, New Jersey stopped paying into the fund, and after the 2000 stock market crash, returns failed to cover interest on the bonds. The state has struggled ever since. Christie, 52, signed reform legislation in March 2010 and again in June 2011. The reforms were heralded as bipartisan efforts, with public employees accepting increased contributions and benefit cuts for new hires, and the state agreeing to boost obligations. In May 2014, however, Christie announced that rather than make the record $2.75 billion payment agreed upon in 2010, the state would only pay $1.3 billion over 14 months; he said his administration should not have to bear the burden of past bad decisions. After unions took this to court, the administration argued that the 2010 agreement wasn’t legal. In August, Christie announced the formation of a New Jersey Pension and Health Benefit Study Commission. “No idea is off the table,” he said. In its first report the panel estimated that pension and health care obligations gave New Jersey a $90 billion funding deficit. With presidential politics heating up, it remains to be seen if Christie will tackle reform or leave it to his successor.
The 2014 Pension 40
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Bruce Rauner Illinois | John and Laura Arnold Laura and John Arnold Foundation | Randi Weingarten American Federation of Teachers | Rahm Emanuel Chicago | David Boies Boies, Schiller & Flexner |
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Randy DeFrehn National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans | Damon Silvers AFL-CIO | Laurence Fink BlackRock | Chris Christie New Jersey | Robin Diamonte United Technologies Corp. |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| Ted Eliopoulos California Public Employees’ Retirement System | John Kline Minnesota | J. Mark Iwry U.S. Treasury Department | Gina Raimondo Rhode Island | Phyllis Borzi U.S. Labor Department |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| Orrin Hatch Utah | Abigail Johnson Fidelity Investments | Ted Wheeler Oregon | Caitlin Long Morgan Stanley | James Hoffa International Brotherhood of Teamsters |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| Amy Kessler Prudential Financial | Alejandro García Padilla Puerto Rico | Christopher Klein U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Caifornia | Steven Rhodes Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan | Kevin de León California |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| David Draine Pew Charitable Trusts | Jordan Marks National Public Pension Coalition | Sam Liccardo California | Joshua Rauh Stanford Graduate School of Business | Karen Ferguson and Karen Friedman Pension Rights Center |
| 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 |
| Timothy Blake Moody’s Investors Service | Kathleen Kennedy Townsend Center for Retirement Initiatives, Georgetown University | Edward (Ted) Siedle Benchmark Financial Services | Daniel Loeb Third Point | Judy Mares Employee Benefits Security Administration, U.S. Labor Department |
| 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 |
| Andrew Biggs American Enterprise Institute | Andy Stern Columbia University | Kenneth Mehlman KKR & Co. | Teresa Ghilarducci New School for Social Research | A. Melissa Moye U.S. Treasury Department |
