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TRENTON, N.J., June 9 (UPI) -- The New Jersey Supreme Court reversed a ruling that required Republican Gov. Chris Christie to pay a $1.57 billion pension plan, dealing a blow to public employee unions. The ruling helps the state avoid a financial crisis, but Christie has said he will not raise taxes although there is no alternative for closing a state deficit that may reach up to $2.7 billion in June.
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The court ruled that the state's legislature is responsible for resolving the pension funding problem.
"That the state must get its financial house in order is plain," Justice Jaynee LaVecchia, appointed by former Republican Gov. Christie Whitman, wrote in the court's opinion. "The need is compelling in respect of the state's ability to honor its compensation commitment to retired employees. But the court cannot resolve that need in place of the political branches. They will have to deal with one another to forge a solution to the tenuous financial status of New Jersey's pension funding in a way that comports with the strictures of our Constitution."
The reversal of the lower court ruling made in February comes as Christie prepares to announce if he will run for the 2016 presidential election.
"The court's position is clear, as is mine, it is time to move forward and work together to find a tangible, long-term solution to make our pension system and public employee health benefits costs affordable," Christie said in a statement.
New Jersey Director for Communications Workers of America Hetty Rosenstein said her union will lobby politicians to include pension funding in the budget sent to Christie later this month.
Communications Workers of America represents about 40,000 of 74,000 state workers. They will protest if needed, she said.
"It's a terrible decision for the pension plan," Rosenstein told Bloomberg. "People in the pension plan have legal rights. If we don't pay them, there will be a total collapse of the New Jersey economy. One in seven people in this state rely on that plan."
