pensions

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- New Jersey's Supreme Court has agreed to consider a case that looks at whether retired public workers have a right to cost-of-living increases in their pensions.

The president of the New Jersey Senate called Wednesday for a national solution to problems facing public worker pension systems in the state and others in the form of about $1 trillion for low-interest loans.

A new poll out Tuesday reveals the vast majority of New Jerseyans think Gov. Chris Christie should have made a full payment into the public employees' pension system, despite his administration successfully arguing that a law he signed, requiring the complete payment, was unconstitutional.

Gov. Chris Christie and the Legislature will soon hear whether they must increase the state's contributions to public worker pension funds.

Hundreds of union members crowded the road and walkways at New Jersey's Statehouse to protest Gov. Chris Christie's funding reductions to public pensions.

A state judge on Monday delayed the latest court arguments over whether Gov. Chris Christie's administration has to contribute more toward pensions for New Jersey public workers.

On Tuesday, a Superior Court judge is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a lawsuit seeking to force Gov. Chris Christie to pay an additional $1.8 billion into the public employees' pension fund in the next fiscal year. Meanwhile, the state Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on a case that could force Christie to contribute and extra $1.6 billion into the system by midnight June 30.

New Jersey's top court weighed the budget repercussions of ruling on a pension dispute between Gov. Chris Christie and public workers' unions on Wednesday while one justice wondered if the state had engaged in a "bait and switch."

There is some concern among state worker union members that they could face public backlash if the Christie administration is ordered to make a hefty payment to the public worker pension system.

Gov. Chris Christie's administration says there is no room for judges to intervene in the state government's budget process.