In New Jersey, Christie, lawmakers agree on benefits, pensions

TRENTON - Just two weeks before the deadline to pass a state budget - and after months of wrangling - Gov. Christie and legislative leaders from both parties said Wednesday that they had reached an agreement on how to tackle New Jersey's soaring pension and health-benefits obligations for public workers.

In a statement released just after 7:30 p.m., Christie, Senate President Stephen Sweeney, Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean Jr., and Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce announced a deal that some were skeptical could happen because so many in the Democratic-controlled Legislature opposed it.

The announcement, which contained few details, eliminated doubt that state leaders would pass the legislation, by relying on the Republican minority to join with a small group of Democrats.

"We all fully support this legislation and will work together to assure its passage by both houses of the Legislature and enactment into law no later than June 30, 2011," the statement said.

It was not immediately known whether the agreement entailed changes to a bill released by Sweeney earlier in the week to increase employee pension and health-care contributions and make other changes in the public benefit system. More details will emerge at the first hearing Thursday before the Senate Budget Committee.

What is clear is that the hearing, which will be held as union leaders rally outside the Statehouse, will come against the backdrop of civil war among the Democratic caucus.

Majority leaders are at odds with Sweeney and Oliver in what Statehouse veterans say is an unusually public display of dissent that indicates broader fault lines in the party.

Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Cryan and Senate Majority Leader Barbara Buono have not been shy about pushing back against the measure over a belief shared by the most of their party: The bill would undermine union collective bargaining rights.

The debate comes as the Communications Workers of America, which represents state workers, is negotiating a new contract and has offered concessions.

"There have been plenty of times where there have been disagreements and very serious oppositions between those offices, but . . . they've never been expressed so publicly," said Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D., Union), a legislator for more than three decades.

At the heart of the tension are also differences over how to deal with Christie, a rising Republican star who has kept Democrats off balance since entering office 11/2 years ago.

One way is to be "Christie lite": Work with the governor to achieve his goals.

That's the approach espoused by Sweeney, of Gloucester County, who pushed for public workers to make concessions on benefits years before Christie was governor and is more conservative than many in his party.

As the architect of the current bill, the ironworkers' union leader has said all along that New Jersey cannot afford not to enact these changes.

The other Democratic strategy has been to fight the governor to preserve traditional progressive values in a blue state. That is where Cryan and Buono come in - and it explains why their relationships with Oliver, of Essex County, and Sweeney have become so strained.

Cryan, a Union County undersheriff, said majority leaders should listen to the majority of their caucus.

"Our caucus will is not being listened to by our leadership," said Cryan, also a former state Democratic Party chairman.

Fewer than one-third of the 47-member caucus, an Essex County-South Jersey coalition, is prepared to vote yes for the legislation. Rounding up support has been difficult in a year when all 120 legislative seats are up for election.

"I think Joe recognizes that the labor movement is a key component of the Democratic Party," said Assemblyman Thomas Giblin (D., Essex), a leader of the operating engineers' union, who had been talking with other labor leaders about reaching a compromise.

Discontent also has bubbled up in the Senate, where Buono and Sweeney were once allies.

"The fact remains that this legislation appears to be headed for passage with Democratic control, and that to me is repugnant," Buono said.

The Middlesex County senator, who has talked with union leaders and other lawmakers about alternatives to the Sweeney bill, noted that union negotiations produced a state contract in 2007 requiring state workers to pay at least 1.5 percent of their salaries toward health-care premiums. That was followed last year by landmark legislation extending the mandate to teachers and other local employees.

Buono said she wanted further concessions to start similarly: with a contract.

"You can't say you support collective bargaining on one hand and then eviscerate it by eliminating anything left to collectively bargain," she said.

Sweeney has said he is trying to sell a plan that is fair to the workforce as well as taxpayers.

"This is not about attacking workers," he said this month. "It's about being fair to the people who are actually paying these bills."

Ben Dworkin, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, said the split partly reflected the fact that with Democrats no longer controlling the governor's office, no one person was calling the shots for the party.

At the same time, he explained, Christie has been effective at keeping his opposition divided and the Republicans together.

"Grassroots Democrats are rather frustrated with the party's leadership," Dworkin said. "There are folks in the grassroots who want to see Democrats arguing more, standing up more."