Tag: New Jersey

People are fed up with broken vaccine appointment tools — so they’re building their own

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/02/01/1016725/people-are-building-their-own-vaccine-appointment-tools/

Excerpt:

That very day, January 2, Craver worked from 3 in the afternoon until 11:30 at night to create Covid19 Vaccine TX, a site listing possible vaccination locations across the state. As a digital product designer, she knew that a site like this would have to be easy to read, intuitive to navigate, and quick to update. The idea was that people could upload information about vaccination sites, with each entry answering three questions: Was the vaccine available that day? Was the location taking appointments? Was there a wait list?

Craver loaded the project on the cloud-based spreadsheet service Airtable, posted a link on Reddit, and went to bed. When she woke up the next morning at 7 a.m., one entry was filled out. “At least somebody cares,” she remembers thinking. She spent the rest of the day manually inserting information for about 1,400 locations in the state. “I’ve been going nonstop since,” she says, estimating that she puts in about 40 hours of her free time every week to maintain the site. It has received 50,000 total visitors since launch.

Author(s): Tanya Basu

Publication Date: 1 February 2021

Publication Site: MIT Technology Review

NJ Retirees – Politicians

Mary Pat Campbell
NJ Retirees – Politicians

Excerpt:

Public servants often spend multiples of what their salaries will be in the jobs they seek in order to get those jobs since they have other incentives. One of those is likely the pension, even for part time employment, that comes with the job.

Though job-hopping makes it impossible to finger all the mayors or council people who game the system, here are some whose last employer was the Office of the Governor, Senate, or General Assembly who, based on data on retirees in the New Jersey Retirement System taken from the the state pension website are getting over $50,000 annually – along with some other familiar names.

Author(s): John Bury

Publication Date: 1 February 2021

Publication Site: Burypensions

Insurers Have Been Draining Funds from New Jersey’s Pensions for 15 Years

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.ai-cio.com/news/insurers-draining-funds-new-jerseys-pensions-15-years/

Excerpt:

Insurance firms have been siphoning off money from New Jersey’s pension funds for the past 15 years thanks to a policy decision that shifted financial obligations for employee injuries to pension funds, according to an investigation by acting state Comptroller Kevin Walsh.

A report on the investigation said that a 2006 policy adopted by the Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) encourages injured employees to accept continuing medical monitoring and coverage instead of cash settlements. The report said the approach, which puts the financial burden on pension funds to pay workers rather than on insurance firms, has provided “a windfall to insurers and financially harms the pension funds.”

At least 114 public employees received both an accidental disability pension and a medical monitoring settlement between 2016 and 2019, according to the report. However, it said the exact cost to the pension funds was unknown because there are no records or data on what insurers would have paid in the absence of medical monitoring settlements.

Author(s): Michael Katz

Publication Date: 8 February 2021

Publication Site: ai-CIO

How the Police Bank Millions Through Their Union Contracts

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.propublica.org/article/new-jersey-police-contracts

Graphic:

Excerpt:

Despite attempts to rein in police union contracts in New Jersey, costly provisions remain common, an unprecedented analysis by the Asbury Park Press and ProPublica found. The news outlets identified contract clauses throughout the state that protect officer payouts that cost the public hundreds of millions of dollars.

In 2010, state lawmakers passed a law to stop huge retirement payouts for unused sick days, but taxpayers are still funding the largesse. North Bergen approved generous payments to four retiring officers in 2019, including a sergeant who got $75,330.32 for unused sick time. Some retirement payouts can be even higher. In 2017, a chief in Jersey City collected more than half a million dollars.

The debt for unused sick time and vacation time, which is largely dictated by the contracts, totaled at least $492.9 million for municipal police alone in 2019, according to a review of town budget records. The liability is primarily due to officers who were hired before the 2010 law passed.

Author(s): Andrew Ford, Asbury Park Press, and Agnes Chang, Jeff Kao and Agnel Philip

Publication Date: 8 February 2021

Publication Site: ProPublica

NJ Pensions Funding WC Insurers

Mary Pat Campbell
NJ Pensions Funding WC Insurers

Excerpt:

The New Jersey State Comptroller released a report examining a practice within the state’s Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) that allows state, school and local government employees injured on the job to seek weekly benefits, a lump sum settlement or continuing medical coverage, in addition to an accidental disability pension.

As deleterious as this practice may be for the state pension fund, eliminating it will only cost taxpayers more when the bigger picture is considered.

The DWC’s policies encourage workers’ compensation petitioners to settle claims that undermine New Jersey’s pension funds, provide windfalls to workers’ compensation insurance providers, including joint insurance funds and private insurance companies, and provide medical monitoring and coverage to employees without evaluating whether these benefits are justified by the nature of the injury. 

Author: John Bury

Publication Date: 4 February 2021

Publication Site: Burypensions

NJ Retirees – Politicians

Mary Pat Campbell
NJ Retirees – Politicians

Excerpt:

Public servants often spend multiples of what their salaries will be in the jobs they seek in order to get those jobs since they have other incentives. One of those is likely the pension, even for part time employment, that comes with the job.

Though job-hopping makes it impossible to finger all the mayors or council people who game the system, here are some whose last employer was the Office of the Governor, Senate, or General Assembly who, based on data on retirees in the New Jersey Retirement System taken from the the state pension website are getting over $50,000 annually – along with some other familiar names.

Author: John Bury

Publication Date: 1 February 2021

Publication Site: burypensions

NJ Active Update – September, 2020

Mary Pat Campbell
NJ Active Update – September, 2020

Excerpt:

Based on state pension data updated through September, 2020 of active participants in the retirement system there are 384,802 jobs (including several employees with multiple jobs) making total annualized salaries of $26,265,086,726. Of those there are 70 making over $250,000 annually (including several with multiple jobs)

Author: John Bury

Publication Date: 29 January 2021

Publication Site: Burypensions

NJ Retiree Update – December, 2020

Mary Pat Campbell
NJ Retiree Update – December, 2020

Excerpt:

Based on state pension data updated through December, 2020 there are 358,277 retirees getting annualized pensions of $12,024,013.

Through December, 2019 there were 352,416 retirees getting annualized pensions of $11,675,297,749 .

There are now 4,195 retirees getting over $100,000 annually. Of those 91 are getting pensions of over $150,000 annually:

Author: John Bury

Publication Date: 26 January 2021

Publication Site: burypensions