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Workers
Rally on
Tax Relief in New Jersey
By David W. Chen, New York Times
December 12, 2006
Dith Pran/The
New York
Protesters on Monday at the Statehouse in
Trenton
It was an “Alice in Wonderland” moment.
The legislators were inside the State House (except when they peeked outside). There were thousands of teachers outside the State House, criticizing the legislators inside for contemplating major changes in their pension plans. And in at least six school districts that closed because of the protests, the students were wherever students go when they are not in school on a Monday.
Yet because of a self-imposed deadline looming for the Legislature and Gov. Jon S. Corzine to make good on a summertime promise to rein in property taxes, New Jersey’s capital found itself immersed in a whirl of events that seemed almost operatic.
As a result, thousands of students got a pre-holiday holiday, and working parents got a headache as they scrambled to figure out how to care for their children.
On the steps of the State House, as many as 10,000 teachers, state employees, firefighters and other workers denounced the Legislature’s attempts to overhaul the system for pension and health benefits.
In a two-hour rally that opened with songs by Twisted Sister, the Rolling Stones and Gary Glitter — music usually heard at basketball games and rock concerts — the workers chanted, “We’re not the problem!” and “Negotiate, don’t legislate!” With thousands donning red T-shirts and waving large red hands that said, “Back Off,” the workers formed a sea of red on State Street.
“We are not going to sit back and take this disrespect,” said Barbara Keshishian, vice president of the New Jersey Education Association, which represents teachers. “We keep this state running, and let me tell you, if we have to, we can shut it down.”
Inside the State House, the scene was no less chaotic. At least 15 legislators — 6 Democrats and 9 Republicans — showed up at the rally to wave and offer tacit support. But for most of the day, the leading players in the property tax drama — Mr. Corzine, Senate President Richard J. Codey and Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr. — and their advisers conferred behind closed doors.
For several days they had not even done that; they had communicated by sharply worded letters and newspaper articles. Shortly after 8:30 p.m., though, the Assembly did pass some laws, by a 44-to-30 vote, with 5 abstentions, that had nothing to do with pensions: encouraging local governments to share more services, shifting fire and school board elections to November and giving county superintendents more power.
Earlier, Mr. Roberts talked to reporters after a late-afternoon meeting with Mr. Corzine.
“We’re very much on the same page,” he said. “This is a work in progress. This is the toughest array of decisions we’ve had to confront since I’ve been here.”
Teachers had a decision, too, an easier one: whether to take a personal day or a vacation day to attend.
“It sort of reminded me of a burlesque,” said Ingrid W. Reed, director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers. “Each of the acts is appealing to the audience to get the most applause.”
Ever since Mr. Corzine challenged legislators in July to find a way to ease property taxes, the highest in the nation, by Jan. 1, they have been wrestling with the changes to the pension system as well as ways to consolidate government services and revamp school finances.
Last week Mr. Corzine wrote a letter to Mr. Codey and Mr. Roberts requesting that the Legislature postpone action on pension and health benefits so he could negotiate directly with the unions, whose contracts expire July 1. The unions were so elated that they almost canceled Monday’s protest.
Then Mr. Codey and Mr. Roberts told the editorial board of The Star-Ledger of Newark that they were concerned that their attempts at tax revisions would be hindered by Mr. Corzine’s request. So on Sunday night, Mr. Corzine said in a second letter to his two Democratic colleagues that he was concerned about their comments — before leaving the door ajar for their ideas.
The unions, like many of the legislators, were so confounded that they did not know what to think.
“We thought that Corzine was a friend,” said Pam Rachlin, a retired social studies teacher from Ocean Township High School, who attended the rally with two former colleagues. “We now have some serious questions about his loyalties.”
In the relatively few districts that decided to cancel classes so teachers could attend the rally, some parents expressed sympathy for the teachers’ plight, while others were less charitable because of the short notice.
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