Lincoln's Birthday will no longer count as a paid holiday, retirement will come at age 62 instead of 60 and the minimum salary to qualify for a pension will increase for new state employees under a series of reforms signed into law today.

Gov. Jon Corzine signed the act -- which aims to save the state $150 million through 2022 -- three months after it cleared the Legislature. It passed despite the objections of powerful labor unions and caused tension between Corzine and his fellow Democrats during budget season.

Bill sponsors from both parties joined Corzine in his Statehouse office to hail the measure as chipping away at a "culture of abuses" in the state pension system. The governor said the reforms come on top of changes he negotiated during collective bargaining in 2007 that will save $6.4 billion through 2022.

"The reforms we've made over the last two years strike the right balance of being fair to hardworking public employees and at the same time lightening the burden on our taxpayers," Corzine said.

The legislation signed today will raise the retirement age for new public employees from 60 to 62, bar pensions for new workers earning less than $7,500 and eliminate one state holiday, Lincoln's Birthday, after contracts expire in 2011. It will also bar public employees from using time worked in other states to reach the 25 years of employment needed to qualify for lifetime health benefits from New Jersey.

Corzine and lawmakers were quick to say that more steps must be taken in order to get the underfunded pension system on track. The fund's liabilities were $28 billion more than its assets as of the spring, said Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex), chairwoman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee.

"We have a system in trouble," said Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union). "It is not beyond the realm of possibility that the pension system could collapse."

Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said public employees should be required to contribute 8.5 percent of their salary to their pensions -- matching what police and firefighters pay -- rather than the current 5.5 percent. But he said he agrees with Corzine that future reforms should come through collective bargaining.