Nearly a quarter of New Jersey's 566 municipalities do not have employees eligible to collect sick-leave payouts, according to the state's own list. And many towns and a few school districts have eliminated the perk or do not have it in their collective-bargaining agreements.
On the stump, Christie tells taxpayers that they would be on the hook for $3.25 billion if Democrats in the Legislature defy him and instead cap sick payouts for current workers at $7,500.
Yet that figure - $7,500 for each of the more than 400,000 current state and local employees - assumes that all workers are old enough (at least 55) and will be employed long enough (up to 30 years) to become eligible, based on a review of union agreements. It requires that they have stayed healthy and accumulated the maximum sick time.
And it posits that every collective-bargaining contract allows a $7,500 payout. Many local governments forbid cashing in the time, and some that do have caps lower than $7,500. For example, 28 percent of school districts cap payouts below $7,500, according to the New Jersey Education Association teachers union. Others have an aggregate cap on what will be paid in a given year.
Though acknowledging that the governor's $3.25 billion number is "admittedly imprecise," it is not inaccurate, said Michael Drewniak, Christie's spokesman. It is "an illustrative figure only," he said.
Because it represents a moment in time - for the current cohort of employees, not the hundreds of thousands hired in years to come - the long-term obligation will be far greater, Drewniak said.
"It does not come close to the full universe of public employees in New Jersey and does not account for employee growth and turnover," he wrote in an e-mail.
