If voters were to approve the amendment and the state contributed its share to the pension system, he said, “you would quickly be faced with the question of, ‘Well, how do I plug the rest of the budget we’ve now consumed?’ ”
That question is particularly relevant in New Jersey, which faces a structural budget deficit and is vulnerable to end-of-year shortfalls because of its heavy reliance on income-tax collections.
“It is a difficult issue, for sure, with long-standing contractually committed obligations vs. the need for budget flexibility and discretion, particularly when faced with deep fiscal constraints and a reluctance to impose new significant taxes,” Joseph J. Seneca, professor emeritus at Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Policy, said in an email.