Hackensack Mayor Karen Sasso, a Democrat elected to the nonpartisan office, called the increase in sick-leave payouts the "other shoe" to Christie's efforts to cut pension costs.
"They were afraid of what they might lose," Sasso, 60, said of the retirements. "We couldn't budget for that kind of mass exodus."
Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt, a Camden Democrat, has offered Christie a compromise that would cap sick-leave payouts at $7,500. Based on 434,017 current state and local employees, that bill would cost taxpayers $3.25 billion, said Christie, who rejected the offer.
Firefighters Retire
Newark, the state's largest city, borrowed $7 million in December to cover the cost of retiree payments, Business Administrator Julien Neals said. The fire department, which had 100 of 700 members retire last year, accounted for more than $6 million of that total, fire director Fateen Ziyad said.
"The governor has made us out to be the new Wall Street fat cats," Ziyad said in an interview. "The fact is that all of these things were negotiated."
Jersey City has incurred $19.6 million in payouts since July 2009 as 180 police officers and firefighters retired ahead of planned pension changes and payout limits. Six recipients got more than $200,000 last fiscal year, including $252,000 paid to Deputy Fire Chief Robert Flora. In December, the city issued $9.3 million in one-year notes to cover part of the total and avert a 4 percent tax increase.
"They are a huge burden and may ultimately be proven unsustainable," Mayor Jerramiah Healy said of the payments in an e-mail. "As it goes forward into the future, the burden is only going to be that much more difficult."