No Reform in Sight for Bipartisan Abuse of Pension Loophole

For a challenger like Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex) stuck in an uphill race and trying to cast herself as a reformer unafraid to take on the political bosses, it was a made-to-order political attack. 

There was Republican Gov. Chris Christie campaigning in Newark’s Ironbound with two of his most prominent Democratic supporters, Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo and Sheriff Armando Fontoura. Christie was on camera praising DiVincenzo for “running a clean, effective and efficient government,” proclaiming “there is no better sheriff” than Fontoura, and declaring that “I love working with these guys.”

“These guys” are two of the poster boys for a notorious New Jersey pension practice that enabled DiVincenzo to “retire” and collect a $68,861 pension while continuing to be paid his full $153,831 salary and Fontoura to collect a $62,304 pension while being paid $137,917. Fontoura has collected more than $1.2 million in pension payments since he “retired” in 1990.

But Buono couldn’t make a big deal out of Christie for campaigning with double-dippers like DiVincenzo and Fontoura, even though the practice drives her public employee union supporters crazy.

That’s because Buono’s campaign chair, Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson-Coleman (D-Mercer), collects her $49,000 legislative salary while taking a $44,724 pension from the state Department of Community Affairs. So does Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), one of Buono’s most vocal supporters, who boosts her $49,000 Senate salary with a $36,000 pension from her Assembly years.

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