PFANJ In The News

GIANTS.COM - Englewood, NJ – November 13, 2007 - As Brandon Jacobs arrived at the Englewood IAFF Local 3260/3263 firehouse, some of the firefighters he was there to visit were on their way out to do what they do best: respond to the needs of their local community. It was for their continuing selfless dedication to others that the Giants were there to honor, as the New York Giants participated in their sixth annual Adopt a Firehouse program.

With the assistance of Sharp Electronics, the Giants donated two Sharp 37” AQUOS LCD televisions and two DVD players to the Englewood firehouse, which will allow the firehouse to utilize the newest fire service training programs in their own facility. Each year, the Giants partner with the Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey to identify a local firehouse in need of new equipment.

Brandon was joined by fellow teammates TE Michael Matthews and FB Madison Hedgecock, who enjoyed a great home cooked meal by the firefighters, and also spent some time touring the station, trying on the equipment, and exploring the many features of the fire truck.

A new component of this year’s program was the inclusion of 7th and 8th grade students from the Janis Dismus Middle School located in Englewood, who participated in an essay writing contest for the program, which posed the question, “What is bravery?” Three of the students were chosen to read their essays aloud to the firefighters.

The Adopt-a-Firehouse program is the New York Giants continuing effort to honor the firefighters who gave their lives on September 11, 2001. This event was the sixth in a continued partnership between the New York Giants and the Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey (PFANJ). Since 2002, the Giants have adopted firehouses in Jersey City, Hackensack, Hoboken, Englewood, Edison, Woodbridge, Perth Amboy and North Plainfield.

NEWARK FIRE OFFICERS LOCAL 1860 PRESIDENT RESPONDS TO RECENT STAR LEDGER ARTICLE

October 16, 2007
To the Editor:

After reading Mr. Sherk's Oct.8th op-ed article. I couldn't tell what bill he was writing about because it sure wasn't the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act that firefighters in New Jersey have worked so hard on.

If the bill actually did the things the article claims it does, such as closing volunteer fire departments, few elected officials would support it. Fortunately, Members of Congress know what the bill actually does, unlike Mr. Sherk, and they approved it by an overwhelming 314-97 vote in July, with the support of majorities from both parties, and it is poised to win similar support from both parties in the Senate.

The bill would simply ensure that fire fighters and police officers in every state have the ability to talk to their employer about how they protect the public safety. The bill includes numerous safeguards to make sure it gives every state and local jurisdiction wide flexibility to manage its own first responders however they see fit. But it also ensures that the fire fighters and cops who are on the front lines get to share their views.

Public safety officers who put on a uniform everyday and put their lives on the line deserve the same rights as other citizens to have their voices heard. And when fire fighters and police officers can meet with city officials to discuss public safety issues, we all benefit from a safer community. The only "assault" on the "civic fabric" here is Mr. Sherk's assault of misinformation and scare tactics.

Sincerely,

John B. Sandella
Verona
The writer is President of the Newark Fire officers Union
Local 1860, IAFF

Dear Editor:
The unmitigated gall of those who now after years of enjoying what amounts to a free ride from making pension contributions, for the League of Municipalities to suggest that they should have their tab forgiven as it relates to the income that would have been earned had they made those same contributions. The truth being they are so used to paying nothing they just can't warm up to or imagine it anymore.

It is a matter of historical fact that the very same League of Municipalities and its member cities and towns lobbied extensively for the "Holiday" they took from responsibility, serving as key participants in negotiating original requirements that someday those skipped contributions and the associated expected earned interest from investment returns would be due and payable. Instead, they continue to advertise the tab they have ran up as the exorbitant cost of public employee benefits rather than their very own self contrived folly. There is no way of getting around the truth - if left alone and with responsible stewardship, the State's public employee retirement system operates almost flawlessly.

Just like the various trust funds and set asides created to keep up with and systematically fund governments infrastructure, social responsibilities and obligations, the pension system has become yet another piggy bank they just could not keep their hand off of, a victim of its own success of sorts. Now when caught red-handed and elbow deep in the cookie jar, they are akin to a credit card junkie looking for yet another way to get out from under their fiscal and moral ineptitude.

The phony reform they seek in the way of legislation in this regard, getting out from under the investment return for the money they legislated to in effect steal, is no more or less like trying to get a do over in the school yard.

Before we get to the part of this game where we devise yet another scheme to further impair the situation we find ourselves in, lets put everything else on the table, if for nothing else the sake of credibility. Elected officials, unless full time employees of the government they serve, and the friends they bring into government service as contractors or vendors, i.e., attorneys and consultants, do not need pensions and health benefits. Let's cut all that out along with the other abuses including crooks, no shows, padding or tacking, multiple pensions and-the-like, before we throw those that serve under the bus.

Despite your best efforts to influence and convince the public otherwise with one-sided rhetoric and inflammatory observations, taxpayers respect firefighters, law enforcement officers and educators, and its well past the time we should be used as human political shields and to sell newspapers. Moreover, we are taxpayers and voters with the same wants, needs and responsibilities as our neighbors.

Thomas P. Canzanella, President
Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey/IAFF, AFL-CIO
Trenton, New Jersey
Representing over 4000 active and career professional firefighters throughout the State.

THE BERGEN COUNTY RECORD - July 26, 2006 - Once again the Record employs a bit of old fashioned front page sensationalism by employing an eye catching headline in association with some inflammatory number bending, coupled with some outright class warfare, in order to lay the blame of high property taxes on public safety officers and teachers as the root cause of taxpayers woes

Bergen County is one of the richest, most densely populated in the Nation. In terms of standard of living and lifestyle, opportunity, education, commerce and basic necessities available to residents, it is the most complete, diverse and scenic place to live and work in the country, all within minutes of New York City.

You can spin median income anyway you want. Bergen County, even in municipalities of lesser distinction, far exceeds most others of its kind in this category. The fact is that higher than average median income on a town by town basis belies not only the type and quality of living standard and employment opportunity we have available, but more importantly, the type of wage generation that it takes to survive here. That being the case, if it takes that kind of income to secure housing and raise a family in this county, exactly what would you expect to pay the cops, firefighters and teachers who live next door to you? I dare anyone to make a logical comparison of any other similar region and not find some correspondence to the wages and cost of living required for a given area, no matter what you do for a living. Very plainly, except for some quirk of wrongdoing no more egregious than an overpaid swindling corporate executive, or a crooked double-dipping politician, cops, firefighters and teachers seem to earn that which it takes to live here. Unless of course we are so beneath the rest of our neighbors that we should reside elsewhere, thereby and possibly allowing us to earn considerably less than those we serve.

As much as essential services and education, property tax to a great degree is a function and direct result of the quality of life, housing costs and equity values we enjoy in association with our proximity to a far more expensive place to live in New York City. Low interest rates and demand for housing have driven up and to some extent over inflated the value of our homes far and above the national average making many of us minor millionaires of sorts, at least on paper. Accordingly, while you enjoy in many cases tremendous value and equity in your home, the downside to all of that is that your property taxes are in some cases a reflection of that over inflated value.

Why don't we just for a minute, talk about property tax reevaluations going on right this minute intended that take full advantage of the over inflated value in our housing market where even if you cut the tax rate, increased property value still leads to an according increase in taxes?

Why don't we talk about the irresponsibility of holding off those property tax reevaluations for 10 or more years as a political gimmick of sorts, designed to artificially keep taxes down so you can get reelected Then when it finally catches up with the politicians, they in turn blame their political misfortune on essential services and those who provide it?

Just 25 or 30 years ago the only folks that made $100,000 a year were doctors and lawyers. Now those professions make millionaires and its become almost a crime that the cop that keeps us safe, the firefighter who drags you from a burning building, or a teacher that educates the next generation of Americans might earn a wage that allows them to enjoy the standard of living that is required to live in and around the places and people we serve. What exactly does the Record think that we should earn, and where exactly could we afford to live that would suit them?

Police officers, firefighters and teachers are your neighbors and fellow taxpayers. You cannot talk about us in a vacuum as if we only exist in the form that you pay, as if we do not have the same concerns, or chip into the pot that pays the cost of safe streets, protection from fire, or education for our children. We need the second car, and have college education's and weddings to pay for just like you. Demonizing us won't fix it. There are many more less romantic, far less flamboyant and more politically damaging reasons for high property taxes that these articles don't dare go near.

(The writer serves as president of the Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey representing over 4000 active and retired firefighters statewide.)

STATEMENT BEFORE THE
SENATE LAW, PUBLIC SAFETY AND VETERANS AFFAIRS COMMITTEE IN SUPPORT OF SENATE BILL 1789
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED BY THOMAS P. CANZANELLA, PRESIDENT
ON BEHALF OF THE
PROFESSIONAL FIREFIGHTERS ASSOCIATION OF NEW JERSEY, AFL-CIO
JUNE 8, 2006

On behalf of the Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey, AFL-CIO, statewide union representing over 4,000 active and retired career professional firefighters affiliated with the 270,000 member International Association of Fire Fighters, I thank the Chair and Members of the Committee for the opportunity to convey our support of Senate Bill 1789, and its Assembly companion A-1550.

Senate Bill 1789 proposes to extend already existing and longstanding protections afforded to municipal police officers relating to the fair and expedient adjudication of disciplinary actions brought against sworn public safety officers by their employers.

Neither the Senate version before you today, nor the unanimously adopted Assembly companion initiative, in anyway restricts the ability of an employer to effectively bring charges and carry out appropriate discipline within their sworn uniformed workforce. The initiatives do however, establish a more finite time period (within 45 days) in order that such actions be carried out in a more reasonable and arguably effective time frame.

More than anything else, these proposals serve to create a more uniform application statewide of the entire disciplinary process by finally extending such coverage to all facets of the public safety community.

The PFANJ as well supports proposed amendment that would extend application of this initiative to on-going and outstanding actions against officers, rather than those merely prospective in nature and pending the bill’s execution into law, since it is the very nature of the current system of almost forever unresolved discipline that makes this legislation so very necessary.

THE FIRE SERVICE'S DIRTY LITTLE SECRET - IT'S NOT JUST TOO MANY JELLY DONUTS

PFANJ - April 25, 2006 - It is entirely too convenient to attribute firefighter's line of duty death and injury as largely or inordinately being related to cardiac conditions resulting from poor diet, exercise and lack of medical monitoring. To that notion, I would suspect that the Fire Service would mostly exhibit, or at least be reflective of the population at large in terms of such disorder. The fact that on a per capita basis we exhibit a higher or more concentrated occurrence of heart attack is as well intrinsically related to the very nature of our work.

Rising instantly from a relatively normal physiological state and calm demeanor, so does the firefighter in less than five minutes of notification, find themselves on the dynamic and chaotic fireground most often with the lives of citizens trapped by escalating fire conditions hanging in the balance. The firefighter, with over 100 pounds of protective and work equipment strapped to their body, then makes their way into the furthest reaches of a building, up and down stairwells, down long corridors, to the seat of the fire. All this time, dragging hose lines that are several hundred feet in length, weighing several pounds plus per linear foot - all carried out in atmospheric conditions of ambient temperature near 500 or more degrees, and in jet black smoke full of the toxins created by the manmade contents of that which is on fire. Every minute of their journey into this uncontrolled, hostile atmosphere, skipping a step or two in the hope that the second saved results in a saved life, be it citizen, child, or firefighter.

The fact that this activity is carried out a hundred times per day in fire departments all over the State, and hundreds of times in a career by the individual firefighters themselves, makes heart attack and stroke no mere coincidence.

The "Dirty Little Secret of the Fire Service" is the fact that the aforementioned has as much, if not more to do with understaffing of fire departments as it does with too many jelly donuts.

Understaffed fire departments translates to not enough firefighters on the fireground in the first few minutes of the fire fight, when the critical decisions and activities such as water supply, forcible entry, rescue of trapped civilians, fire attack, ventilation and property conservation are carried out. The extent to which those tasks are carried out, most often simultaneous and interdependent on one another, is directly related to success in saving lives and property, and the firefighter going home in one piece.

The rub here has to do firefighters being required to, and out of a sense of commitment to their calling, attempting to do the work of two and three other firefighters at great personal risk of working alone instead of in teams to get all the work that needs to be done accomplished. If you don't think that such activity does not weigh on the bodies and minds of firefighters resulting in their being injured, trapped and killed by everything from fire, smoke and falling debris right on up to and including heart attack, than you have been effectively fooled by the window dressing that diet and exercise is all that is wrong with our fire departments and their firefighters.

Yes, we need to take better care of ourselves (so do you) and yes, to date management has not been a willing partner in that regard, however, I am happy to say that such is changing. Exercise equipment is showing up in firehouses sometimes brought in by the union, sometimes by management. Time is allotted for its use, and we are generally eating better. The union and management (IAFF and IAFC) have worked in partnership towards a wellness-fitness initiative available to every fire department in the Nation and we are beginning to see the Doc's before we are injured.

What is not getting better is the proper amount of firefighters and time it takes to get them on scene where they can make a successful impact on your emergency. In fact, the government just acted to cut a grant program that would allow fire departments to off set the cost of hiring for the 100,000 firefighters they claim we need on the streets to protect this country in the face of fire, man-made and natural disaster inclusive of Homeland Security concerns in the wake of 9/11.

All the walks in the park and all the granola bars in the world will not change that. Citizens will continue to die needlessly in fires, and their firefighters will continue to die trying to save them largely because we have cut our Fire Service to the bone.

Thomas P. Canzanella, President
Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey, AFL-CIO
24 West Lafayette Street Trenton, NJ 08608

Prepared Remarks by Thomas P. Canzanella, President
Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey/IAFF, AFL-CIO

PFANJ - February 17, 2006 - Edison, New Jersey - The President’s FY2007 proposed budget smacks of the kind of irresponsibility and arrogance we’ve come to expect from an Administration that talks out of both sides of their mouth. On one hand they talk about strides in domestic preparedness all the while praising our Nation’s First Responders - then when it comes time to make good on turning those promises and accolades into reality what do we get?

An almost 50% reduction in the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program (FIRE Act) a program specifically designed to aid local fire and rescue agencies secure the most basic firefighting and rescue equipment they need to serve citizens and protect themselves on a daily basis…

Outright elimination of the SAFER Act program (Staffing Apparatus for Fire and Emergency Response) specifically designed in the wake of 9/11 to provide over the next several years nearly 100, 000 career professional and volunteer firefighters nationwide in urban, suburban and rural communities that the Administration agreed were required to improve domestic preparedness in the face of anticipated terrorist attacks and for response to natural disasters not unlike what we witnessed with Hurricane Katrina…

Elimination of programs the President himself talked about in the days, weeks and months following 9/11 such as radio communication interoperability that would greatly aid fire, police, EMS and other agencies in a more unified response to manmade or natural disasters…

It is all too amazing that the President literally ignores the will of a Republican controlled Congress who has time and time again, worked in bi-partisan fashion with Democrats to reject continued Administration proposals that cut and fail to prioritize Homeland and Hometown Security…

To this day, New Jersey’s firefighters continue to lack the training, equipment and staffing to safely and efficiently perform their historic duties of protecting life and property from fire - let alone embarking upon and becoming more proficient in dealing with the harsh realities of our more expanded post 9/11 responsibilities responding to all manner of post-terrorism acts including but in no way limited to incidents involving the use of chemical, biological, explosive, radiological and even nuclear devices and the associated destruction and devastation they might inflict upon our homes and families.

I, like the rest of the advocates assembled before you today do not pretend to know all the answers however, I am reasonably sure a Fire Service such as we have here in the Great State of New Jersey can be no more safe, effective and ultimately successful in it’s efforts to protect citizens if it understaffed, trained and equipped than might a military force with too few soldiers, no body or vehicle armor.

The Fire Service that we expect to protect our communities must be as ready as the Armed Forces we expect to protect this Nation. In that strict regard we require funding based upon expectation of results - not wishes and promises.

Background and Summary of Complaint
Pension Protection Action
Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey, IAFF, AFL-CIO
New Jersey State Fraternal Order of Police
Tuesday, October 4, 2005

The Police and Firemen’s Retirement System of New Jersey (PFRS) held a surplus of approximately $938,000,000 in FY2000 drawing down to a deficit of approximately $3,574,000,000 for FY2004. This $4.5 billion dollar deterioration is largely the result of legislation (S-2586 of 2003) that permitted municipal employers of law enforcement officers and firefighters to defer and discount employer required contributions to the PFRS, in association with the State of New Jersey’s own failure to make required contributions. During this same time frame, police officers and firefighters continued to make their own statutorily required contributions totaling 8.5% of their base annual salaries, one, if not the highest public safety employee pension contribution rate in the Nation.

The State of New Jersey and its municipalities were first relieved of their obligationsto make employer required contributions in 1997, when legislation was enacted that revised the method of accounting and valuing plan assets. Under this new and more creative method of accounting, the value of PFRS assets was purposely and substantially increased, resulting in intended excess or more accurately, inflated assets. Accordingly, the State and its municipalities used those enhanced assets as a manner in which to relieve themselves of their obligation to match employee contributions for the purpose of tax relief. Despite the “free ride” afforded to both the State and municipalities, police officers and firefighters remained obligated, and so did they continue, to contribute 8.5% of their base annual salaries for which they have neither sought nor been granted any similar relief.

In 2003, with those self-created inflated assets running dry, despite facing a growing PFRS deficit, and in order to provide continued budgetary relief to municipalities who had by their own admission made no provisions whatsoever to resume employer contributions, the State Treasurer proposed, and the Legislature adopted, an initiative (S-2586) permitting municipalities to pay only a discounted fraction of their required pension contributions. Adding insult to injury, despite the fact that the foregoing legislation in no way extended the State a like ability to skip or discount badly needed pension contributions, they did so nonetheless, paying only a fraction of their required obligation. Again, and to this day as we go forward, police officers and their firefighter counterparts remain obligated to contribute 8.5% of their base annual salaries serving as the sole and sustaining guaranteed plan income.

As a result of the aforementioned legislation, and in association with the States non-legislated failure to required contributions, the PFRS funding ratio, which indicates the financial soundness of the plan, has fallen from 105.65 % for FY2000, to 100.85% for FY2001, to 95.82% for FY2002, to 88.45% for FY2003 and to 83.95% for FY2004.

Enactment of the 2003 legislation, in association with the State’s failure to make their own proper contributions absent legal legislative authority, deprives the PFRS of the funds necessary to maintain it on a sound actuarial reserve basis. An undeniable consequence of this failed scheme is the alarmingly significant reduction in plan earnings from investments and interest that would have been derived from skipped and substandard contributions. The foregoing serving to jeopardize the financial soundness of the plan and its ability to make good on earned benefits as they come due in the future. In that regard, the complete and total lack of prudent fiscal judgment demonstrated by the strategy articulated in S-2586, relying upon the exclusive use of employee contributions to either sustain or accordingly grow the plan, that resulted in the type of significant funding losses sustained over the last several years represents an abdication of fiduciary responsibilities in its purest form.

The complaint seeks to declare the 2003 legislation (S-2586) unconstitutional, to end any conflict of interest that would allow the State Treasurer to determine type and variety of contributions aside from statutory law, and to direct defendants to make regular full payments to the PFRS for FY2004, FY2005, and beyond, in accordance with fiscally responsible actuarial calculations.

The plaintiffs, Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey, I.A.F.F.-AFL-CIO, and the New Jersey State Fraternal Order of Police, along with representative active and retired members and widows of members of these two unions who have been affected by this failure to adequately fund the plan, are represented by the law firm of Greenberg, Dauber, Epstein & Tucker of Newark. The PFANJ/IAFF and NJFOP represent the majority of career professional firefighters and law enforcement officers throughout the State of New Jersey and this Nation.

Named as defendants in this action are the State of New Jersey,
John McCormac- Treasurer, the New Jersey State Senate and General Assembly.

For additional information and commentary please contact:
Thomas P. Canzanella, President PFANJ 609/396-9766 or 201/310-2051
Edward R. Brannigan, President NJFOP 609/599-1222

COURIER-POST - September 25, 2005 - When I read that politicians were shocked to discover pension costs for firefighters, police officers and municipal workers went up sharply this year, I couldn't help but think of a famous moment in the movie Casablanca.

There's a scene where Captain Renault says he's "shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here," shortly before he picks up his roulette winnings at Rick's casino.

Even more bizarre were remarks made by Bill Dressel, executive director of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, stating that pension costs "took my breath away." Dressel knows better. He's neither employing common sense nor telling the truth.

What has happened in New Jersey is similar to a homeowner who skips his mortgage payments for six years, takes out all the equity in his home, and is now faced with making large, catch-up payments. Unfortunately, taxpayers are paying the price because our elected officials decided to skip their pension contributions. Now they want you to believe what's owed has to do with benefits instead of their own folly.

System sound
The pension plan for New Jersey's public employees (firefighters, police and general employees) is fiscally sound and affordable. The plan provides a modest benefit to retired employees using funding from three major sources.
First, state workers contribute 5 percent of their annual salaries (fire and police contribute 8.5 percent) into the pension fund every year. Second, these funds are invested in stocks and bonds with earnings helping to build the funds. Finally, state and local governments contribute money to the pension system.

That's how the system is supposed to work -- if you don't mess with it. The problem in New Jersey is that, over the past six years, public servants kept making contributions to the pension system while local governments neglected their statutory commitment, relying instead on pension reserves and earnings.

Caught up in the giddiness of a rising stock market, governments did not make contributions to the pension system between 1998 and 2004. When the stock market did what it always does -- spiral back down after years of steady gains -- pension funds were caught short and the bill is now effectively due.

Despite that, and faced with a further downward turn in the market, politicians continue to forge ahead and even refine their underfunding schemes by skipping, discounting and deferring their required contributions, thus compromising the fiscal integrity of the system. Adding insult to injury, politicians appear to have no intention to pay back the nearly $2 billion they have effectively raided from the pension system and, in all likelihood, will make every effort to reduce or negate current and future obligations, all the while laying the blame on public servants who contributed their share.
It's important to keep in mind that, even after years of irresponsible behavior on the part of politicians, New Jersey's state pension system still is fundamentally sound. The proof of that is the continued attempts to raid and underfund the system's reserves.

Current assets cover most all the projected costs of pensions, well above the national average. Moreover, there is a simple way to prevent big increases in pension costs in the future: Governments must behave responsibly and make regular contributions to the pension every year.

Abuse
It's time for elected officials to step up and be accountable for their fiscal irresponsibility instead of acting "shocked and breathless" and trying to blame public employees.

The pension system is being abused. It is not an interest-free automatic teller machine. Unless state and local officials fulfill their obligations, New Jersey taxpayers and the hardworking people who police our streets, fight fires and collect trash will be the losers.

Thomas P. Canzanella
(President, Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey/IAFF, AFL-CIO)

PFANJ - September 1, 2005 - Please find the requirements governing deployment to incidents such as Katrina and even off duty training that assures PFRS pension coverage to an individual should they be injured or killed.
WE ARE CARING PROFESSIONALS NOT VOLUNTEERS!

http://www.state.nj.us/treasury/pensions/fact55.htm

STATEMENT BY
THOMAS P. CANZANELLA, PRESIDENT
PROFESSIONAL FIREFIGHTERS
ASSOCIATION OF NEW JERSEY
BEFORE THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY
BENEFITS REVIEW COMMISSION
THURSDAY, JULY 14, 2005

Due to an unavoidable scheduling conflict, Brother Joseph W. Krajnik, President of the Uniformed Firefighters Association of Jersey City IAFF Local 1066, AFL-CIO, delivered the foregoing testimony before the Governor's Benefits Review Commission the evening of July 14, 2005. I offer my most sincere thanks for the outstanding job he did in both delivery and answering the many questions put to him by the panel. Few are as uniquely qualified as is Brother Krajnik to offer reasoning and defense of our hard earned benefits now under scrutiny and in many cases attack.

On behalf of the Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey, AFL-CIO, statewide union representing over 3000 of the State's 5800 career professional firefighters, emergency medical and allied support services personnel working in nearly 80 municipalities, fire districts, State and federal facilities whom are affiliated with the 262,000 member International Association of Fire Fighters, I offer our most sincere appreciation for the opportunity afforded by the Chair and Honorable Members of the Committee that we might offer our insight and commentary this evening.

Let me begin by stating for the record that we join many in this room and throughout the State in the affirmative assessment that it is more than past the time that the issue of pension and benefit abuse be taken up as a matter of public policy discourse. While we agree to the foregoing extent, we may well disagree regarding the compelling issues and causation. Our appearance here today is in the defense of career professional firefighters and their families and to that end I make no pretensions and offer no apologies.

New Jersey's firefighters and law enforcement officers make a uniform contribution annually that totals 8.5% of our pensionable base salary by way of our weekly or bi-weekly pay checks. The foregoing constitutes one of, if not the highest employee contribution rate of any publicly held defined benefit system in New Jersey, let alone the Nation. Conversely, our employers continue to seriously underfund our pension system by skipping, discounting and deferring their statutorily required co-contributions dramatically compromising the fiscal integrity of the system, racking up a serious unfunded liability, and in effect reducing our sole contributions to nothing more than a manner in which to offset meager gains in a lack luster investment market compounded by bonding and re-bonding schemes.

As we converse here today we are in the midst of a five year progressive phase-in plan wherein our employers are discounting and deferring their co-contributions with not a single intention to pay back nearly $2 billion they have effectively raided from our pension system, and in all likelihood without some sort of legal intervention, will make every effort to reduce or negate their current and future obligations as well. The sad fact, dating back several Administrations Republican and Democrat alike, is that when politicians talk about property tax relief or stabilization they are making those promises with every intention of raiding our pension system leaving those obligations for our children to contend with.

The PFRS, largely due to its reserves and the amount of money contributed by working firefighters and police officers has become the "Cash Cow" of all New Jersey's pension systems and trust funds, and not unlike the Transportation Trust Fund there is the notion that it can be drained with nary a thought to paying the employers contributions back to the system in any way, shape nor form, accordingly heaping such burdon upon employees and taxpayers alike.

The "Thanks" we get for standing by while our nest egg is robbed blind has to become in effect a political football wherein those that used our pension proceeds to gain election or reelection as the case might be, now endeavor to portray the unfunded liability they have racked up by skipping, discounting or deferring employer pension contributions as a bill taxpayers bear in association with our benefits as opposed to their underfunding schemes.

Exactly what does anyone think our homes and our property taxes, children's education, automobile insurance and a loaf of bread cost us as opposed to them? We live and work in the most densely populated, most costly housing market in the Country. We earn as police officers and firefighters that which it takes to live in and around our places of employment, with many of our members finding the need to work a second job to make ends meet. New jersey is fast becoming a place that chases it's retirees from the State looking to find a more economically viable environment to live upon a fixed income. Why would we want to literally chase folks with a hard earned retirement income who pay property taxes and infuse the economy with New Jersey money to places like Florida or Delaware?

As an example of that which infuriates our membership and their families no end is a legislative initiative (S-2586) passed in June of 2003, allowing our employing municipalities to further discount and defer their pension contributions over the next 5 years with not a single intention to pay the dollar for dollar amount they have under funded the system, let alone to unfunded liability and lost investment dollars that money would have created-read that as principal and interest!

Even more disturbing is the fact that S-2586 allows the State Treasurer to usurp legislative oversight in making the final determination of who pays what and when, allowing an appointed and not elected member of the Administration's Cabinet to use the PFRS as a political slush fund of sorts. This was all done at a point when the stock market was producing possibly its worst investment returns in recent years-read that as fiscal irresponsibility!

You tell me how much our system was under funded and how much investment money it might have returned, and I'll tell you how much every firefighter, cop and their loved ones contributed to politicians getting elected on phony tax pledges that we will all pay for in the end. The PFRS is being used as if it were an interest free MAC Machine becoming a victim of its own solvency.

Before we contemplate or create window dressing solutions that serve only to falsely pacify taxpayers while protecting the real villains in all of this, that victimize the very folks that protect our communities, vote and pay taxes, and who are in no way, shape or form to blame for the mess we find ourselves in, let's tackle that which must sour the mouth of everyone in this room. Folks that work a series of elected or appointed jobs, some full time and many not, who wind up with pensions and benefits as good and in most cases better than the folks who run into your burning buildings with too few firefighters, or chase thugs down the street who are better armed than they. Let's close those loopholes along with compelling employers to make their fair share of statutorily required pension contributions. How about someone in elected office for once do what their firefighters do day in and day out by taking a risk to do the right thing for a change instead of making us out to be greedy scapegoats.

I want to once again, sincerely thank all of you for the opportunity to address this panel today. I would be happy to do my best in answering any questions or addressing any comments you might have at this time.

Included in the photo above is Lt. Carlo Branco USMC - Middletown Resident

Members of Charlie Battery - 1st Battalion - 10th Marine Artillery Regiment Unit,
presently stationed in Iraq, are seen above proudly displaying the old PFANJ banner.
These Marines are assigned to the 2nd Battalion - 10th Marine Provision Infantry Battalion.
The PFANJ is PROUD to Salute our Fighting Men and Women!

PENSION UNDERFUNDING THE REAL PROBLEM

ASBURY PARK PRESS - June 24, 2005 - I must to some extent eat my words having told folks that quite a bit of your reporting concerning public employee pensions was on target. Your commentary depicting firefighters and police officers is categorically untrue as it relates to the envy we have for New York and New Jersey Port Authority Police pension benefits. There is not a single piece of legislation in the General Assembly or Senate that belies that fact.

Just a little bit of fact checking and maybe an inquiry or two made to those that are in the know would tell you that municipal firefighters and police officers demand that the State and our employers stop underfunding our pension system. They are running up a tab that will be borne for years to come in the form unfunded liability that they are careful not to explain to their constants, instead making us out to be slackers and chiselers with grandiose and undeserved retirement benefits. They have absolutely no intention of stopping their raid and are cavalier enough to believe that they will not either be compelled to pay their share of contributions back, or improve benefits going forward in return for that which they are in effect stealing. The Police and Firemen's Retirement System is one of the more well run, solvent systems in the State sitting on significant reserves resulting from firefighter and police officer contributions and investments that greatly assist in defraying the cost of our benefits. If anyone is envious its the politicians who want to get their snouts in deeper to the troth that pension proceeds have become. When they tell you they are going stabilize or lower property taxes they mean raid the pension. We are every bit as much taxpayers as anyone else and we demand that they cease the practice of raiding fire and police pensions.

Thomas P. Canzanella
(President, Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey/IAFF, AFL-CIO)

FIREFIGHTERS, POLICE AREN'T ABUSERS OF STATE PENSION SYSTEM

ASBURY PARK PRESS - May 17, 2005 - If you are going to take issue with firefighter and police pensions and benefits you at least owe it to yourself to know the real facts in the case as it relates to us having a “cushy arrangement, grandiose benefits or entitlements” as decried in recent news articles, editorials and on the Sunday morning talk shows by both politicians and pundits alike. For those of you that know the truth you might actually consider telling it once and awhile rather than sensationally vilifying the very folks that do the work that creates the pensions you have raided.

Few if any firefighters or police officers retire after 25 years in fact, the average length of service for public safety professionals approaches near 30 or more years, with most of us retiring in our mid to late 50’s. We do not necessarily qualify for Social Security and Medicare, and most of us without fail work a second job in retirement as we did while active to make ends meet. It seems in many cases our job and the physical ability to run up stairs with hundred pounds of equipment to fight a fire, or down the street after a thug armed with a hand held cannon runs out about the time we have weddings and colleges to pay for, and parents to look after. Imagine that, your firefighters and police officers are working class taxpayers just like you, and not the thieves we are being portrayed as.

The problem with our pension system has little to do with our benefits, but the fact that millions upon millions of dollars in our employing municipalities pension contributions have been skipped, deferred or discounted, which when all is said and done, dollar for dollar, might well total near $2 billion or more let alone lost investment returns on that money. The only full and on-time contributions made for the last several years have been those made by firefighters and police officers at 8.5% of our salary, and whose personal contributions have been used as a bumper of sorts in a lackluster market with lean returns on pension investments. Firefighters and police officers received nothing in return for having our pension system raided except stories about doom, gloom and good government while our employers continue elbow deep in the cookie jar that is our pension system.

They have no plan to pay a nickel of the money they owe the system back, and now endeavor to portray the liability or bill they ran up as if it were the benefits we have earned by our dedicated service instead of their very own folly. In general they begrudge any notion that they might begin even making contributions going forward much less making good on what they've under-funded, instead making us out to be the culprits.

Not a single article lets you the taxpayer and voter know that an act of the Legislature unwittingly turned over most pension oversight to the appointed, and not elected, State Treasurer, in effect making him one of the more influential non-elected public officials in New Jersey controlling our collective fortunes taxpayers and pensioner alike. We elect Governors, Senators and Assembly persons, trust their oversight and live with our votes. I'll take my chances with 120 legislators any day over the agenda of a single individual who answers to whom appointed them, versus pensioners and taxpayers who turn out much to be the same folks after all, lest we lose convenient sight of that fact.

Using pension proceeds to balance local, county and State budgets is neither Democratic nor Republican sport, in fact it has been in general a bi-partisan effort up until recently when the party in power elected to siphon off funding while reneging on benefit improvements going forward, which is the accepted manner in which you might repay which you have under-funded, and the point and time we went from having an understanding and helping out - to an all out pension raid.

When and how this all ends are elections and the courts because we have had enough of being victimized and now vilified for political cover and gain.

The writer serves as the elected president of the Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey, AFL-CIO, statewide representative of firefighters, emergency medical and allied fire and rescue services employees affiliated with the 267,000 member International Association of Fire Fighters.

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