The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Thursday that it is legal for the state government to cap payouts for unused sick time for top administrators in local school districts.

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The 5-0 decision overturned a lower court ruling in the case. Six justices heard the case, including one appointed temporarily who did not cast a vote.

At issue was the constitutionality of a law and subsequent regulations restricting the payment for newly accumulated sick time for school administrators at $15,000.  The law was passed in 2007 following a state report that found exorbitant benefits for some school superintendents, including clothing allowances, chauffer services and sick-time payments running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Gov. Chris Christie, who took office in 2010, has campaigned against such generous benefits for public servants and imposed a rule that school superintendents in most cases cannot have salaries higher than the governor's $175,000.

While that new salary cap is not addressed in Thursday's decision, the court did find that it is proper for the state's executive county school superintendents to review the contracts of local school superintendents.

"We conclude that the Legislature had the authority to modify terms and conditions for future contracts for public employment in a manner that did not raise constitutional concerns," the court said in an opinion by Chief Justice Stuart Rabner.

The ruling overturned a lower court, which found that the sick-leave cap violated the property rights of the administrators in cases where they had already accumulated sick leave worth more than $15,000.

The high court rejected that argument, finding the cap was legal because it applied only to new contracts. Kevin Roberts, a spokesman for Christie, hailed the ruling.

"This ruling sides with New Jersey taxpayers and sends a clear signal that the first step toward reform in 2007 to limit the abuse of unused sick pay benefits was a strong move in the right direction," he said. The next step, Roberts said, is for lawmakers to eliminate all sick-time payments for public employees. "Sick days are when you're sick, not as a retirement bonus, and should have no cash value moving forward," he said.

A spokeswoman for the New Jersey Association for School Administrators, which filed the challenge to the cap, did not immediately reply to a message from The Associated Press.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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