Marc Kovar
Executive Vice President
Management and control of
PFRS investment decisions
will protect our pensions
No more politics with our pensions: On July 3, Governor
Phil Murphy signed legislation that allowed us to take control
of our pension funds. This is a significant event in our union’s
history. This was legislation that former governor Chris Chris-
tie refused to approve multiple times.
The new law separates the Police and Fire Retirement Sys-
tem (PFRS) from the rest of the state’s public employment re-
tirement systems and gives management of our pensions to
a newly constituted board of trustees. Police and fire unions,
together, will hold seven of the 12 board seats.
We have been trying to rid politics from our pension sys-
tem for years. There has been a lot of time and effort spent to
get to this point. Over the years, we have had support in the
legislature but never could get Christie to support our efforts.
With a new governor, whom we supported and helped elect
to office, we had our best chance of getting Senate Bill 5 that
makes PFRS independent from state control a law.
In his statement when signing the new law, Governor Mur-
phy said: “It is critical that those who have paid into the pen-
sion system are comfortable that they will be able to retire
with dignity. Labor is the backbone of many New Jersey fam-
ilies. The state must move forward with stable, reliable pen-
sion payments, and this bill is a good first step toward making
sure that our retiring police officers and firefighters feel se-
cure as they move toward retirement, while also protecting
the financial interests of taxpayers.”
We couldn’t agree more. The new law that gives us control
of our pension fund moves us in the right direction. Now we
can focus on fully funding our pensions without political in-
terference. Finally!
A lot of work to do: We started looking into the idea of tak-
ing back control of our pensions more than three years ago.
We looked at other states that had successfully given con-
trol of police and fire pensions to a board of trustees. We re-
searched best practices. We were quickly convinced that sep-
arating our pensions from New Jersey’s other systems was our
best option.
This is a new law, and we still have a lot of work to do. For
example, initially creating the board of trustees and choosing
the right professionals to assist our efforts will be an import-
ant first step. It will take seven months to create the board
of trustees and officially begin making important investment
decisions. And it will take years of properly managing invest-
ment decisions to get our funds to the fully-funded level.
What it all means: New Jersey joins at least three other
states – Washington, Colorado and Ohio – that have been suc-
cessful in giving more management and control of police and
fire pensions to trustees.
Realistically, we would never have any possibility of getting
back any cost-of-living adjustments or retirement benefit
enhancements the way things were going. Our involvement
with management and control of our pension funds will give
us the best opportunity to increase COLA and benefits for all
of our members down the road – with no political interfer-
ence.
Some important thank-yous:
To our NJ State PBA President Pat Colligan for his tireless
leadership.
To NJ State PBA Director of Government Affairs Rob Nixon
for his hard work lobbying on our behalf.
To Governor Phil Murphy for doing what Chris Christie
wouldn’t: agreeing to give control of police and fire pensions
to the men and women who most deserve to control their re-
tirement funds.
To Senate President Steve Sweeney for being a consistent
and strong advocate for our efforts. He was responsible for
building momentum within the legislature for the idea of
helping our members protect their own retirement funds.
And to Assemblyman Gordon Johnson, who sponsored the
legislation and gathered support for our lobbying efforts in
the Assembly chambers.
Creating a board of trustees and controlling investment
decisions in our pension system will go a long way toward as-
suring all of us and our families that funds will be there for
us when we retire. This also means that retirement promis-
es made to each of us when we decided to make the career
choice to become law enforcement officers will be kept.
Continue to have a great summer. Stay safe out there. d
www.njcopsmagazine.com
■ JULY 2018 7