The largest public employees union in the Garden State will join with the New Jersey Education Association and sue Gov. Chris Christie, after he announced plans to cut the contribution to the public worker pension system by $2.5 billion over the next 13 months.

(David Matthau, Townsquare Media NJ)
(David Matthau, Townsquare Media NJ)
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Christie made the announcement during a news conference on Tuesday.

"I make the decisions that I believe are the right thing to do, they want to sue, the courts are available to them, they want to protest, the First Amendment is available to them, go ahead have at it," Christie said when asked for his reaction to the action planned by the NJEA and the CWA.

Christie said he's taken a lot of time examining the issue.

"Given the circumstances that we've been confronted with, I believe that this is not only the best but the only decision we're left with, to deal with the magnitude of the problem that we have," Christie said.

He said the simple fact is we can no longer afford the pension system as it is currently set up.

"If they want to go to court, that's perfectly well within their rights, let them go to court and we'll see what happens," the governor said. "What the people of the state need to understand about this is that we cannot afford this system - I've been saying that since January, I didn't think it would happen this quickly but it has."

Christie also said "for those who believe in tax increases on this, detail for me how you're going to close a $2.7 billion problem, and we'll see how the public reacts to that proposal."

 

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