N.J. Assembly agrees to Christie's changes on private-sector retirement plan
By Samantha Marcus | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on January 12, 2016 at 6:10 AM, updated January 12, 2016 at 2:36 PM
TRENTON — The
state Assembly voted after 1 a.m. Tuesday to cooperate with Gov. Chris Christie's veto of a bill creating a state-run
retirement plan for private-sector workers, 12 hours after the governor handed
down his executive veto.
Christie gutted the plan, sponsored by the Democratic leaders in both
houses, offering instead to create a small business retirement marketplace to
close the gap in private-sector retirement savings.
About 1.7 million people in New Jersey's workforce don't have access to an
employer-sponsored plan, according to the AARP. And a U.S.
Federal Reserve report has indicated that 31 percent of working
Americans polled have no retirement savings.
Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson) signaled earlier in the day he
would accept the governor's conditional veto.
Christie vetoes state-run private-sector retirement
plan
"It's not what I intended, but it's a step forward. I plan to revisit the
issue next session," he said earlier in the day.
The Assembly voted 65-0 to concur with the veto. The state Senate, which will
continue the voting session later Tuesday morning, still has to concur.
Modeled after Washington state, the marketplace would connect small
businesses and their employees to existing investment vehicles, Christie said. A
bill (S3261) creating "New Jersey Small Business Retirement Marketplace Act" was
introduced by Sen. Steven Oroho (R-Sussex) in December.
"By following this model, the New Jersey Small Business Retirement
Marketplace will provide a market-based approach so that small businesses can
offer a simple and inexpensive way to offer private savings to their employees,
which will result in workers saving more for retirement throughout their
lives," he said in the veto message.
The bill (A4275)
originally created the Secure Choice Savings Program. Businesses with at
least 25 employees would be required to set up a payroll deduction for their
employees, who could opt out of making voluntary contributions. The businesses
wouldn't have to contribute. Businesses with fewer employees could choose to
offer the plan to their workers.
While administered by a seven-member board of state officials, the money
would not have been guaranteed by the state, and it didn't require any
contribution from the state. The state would initially have to incur the costs
of setting up the program.
In his veto message, Christie said the mandatory program would burden small
businesses and duplicate services that exist elsewhere.
Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com.
Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus.
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