Sick pay is for those who get sick. If you don't get sick, you shouldn't get sick pay. Period.



The same goes for all fringe benefits. If you're not disabled, you don't get disability. If you're not unemployed, you don't get unemployment. This is not complicated.



Until you put politics into the mix.



New Jersey, the state with the highest property taxes in the nation, still allows public workers to collect big payouts for their unused absences. It's a perk unheard of in the private sector, but we're all paying dearly for it.

N.J. failed to stop sick time payouts. Now we're really paying for it | Editorial



In total, the bill now tops $2 billion, according to an unchallenged investigation by Colleen O'Dea of NJSpotlight. The poster child is Jersey City's police chief, who will walk off the job with more than $500,000 for his unused sick and vacation days. It is common for even lower ranking police and firefighters to walk away with $50,000 or $100,000. And even those facing a cap get $15,000.



In all, we'll pay $929 million for police and municipal workers, $715 million for teachers and other school employees and $216 million for county workers under current policy.



The hole gets deeper every day, which underscores the urgency of fixing this. The blame now lies squarely with Democratic leaders, for tabling reform and blocking it in recent years. If you want evidence of public employees using Democrats to skewer taxpayers, this is Exhibit A.



Starting back in 2010, Gov. Christie wanted a tough reform, but the Democratic Legislature said no, and gave him back weaker ones, which in the end he wouldn't sign. Christie's stubbornness ultimately left us with no reform.

N.J. senator: Sick leave reform is due, our property taxes depend on it | Opinion



But now, at least fifteen new bills - Democratic and Republican - are pending in the Legislature on this issue, and none can get a hearing from its two most powerful people, Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson).



One of them, sponsored by Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth), says that public workers can't accumulate more than $10,000 worth of sick and vacation time, after current contracts expire. Other bills set limits of $7,500, or zero. We vote for zero.



A bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt (D-Camden) would apply a $7,500 cap retroactively, meaning that workers who have already accrued thousands more in sick days would lose the rest of their payout.



That goes too far, in our view. Legal or not, it's wrong to take back promised benefits that people have planned to use in retirement. What if someone has accumulated $75,000 at age 60, and is counting on it for retirement?



What the state can do, though, is draw a line and say, "No more." That's what a bill from Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz (R-Union) would do, by prohibiting any additional accumulation of unused sick pay after its effective date.



Yet even Munoz's bill was blocked by Democrats last month, as was Beck's. In both cases, Democrats took party-line votes that denied a vote on these proposals.



Sweeney argues there's no point in bringing a bill to a vote unless he knows that Christie will agree to it. But at this late date, after letting years pass and liabilities grow even further, the Legislature just needs to reach a compromise and act.



The Senate President has put forward bills on this issue in the past, and others that the governor didn't support, like his Sandy Bill of Rights to better protect storm victims. Christie ultimately signed a version of that into law, under pressure. Time to try again. Because now, it's the taxpayers who need protecting.

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