Hagner: State Employee Contracts a 'Burden' on Taxpayers

Nicole Hagner, the 27th District's Republican candidate for the General Assembly, and runningmate Lee Holtzman announced they will hold a press conference to discuss state employee contracts, which cost "millions of dollars each year for unused vacation and sick days," according to a statement released Wednesday.

"Municipal employees already receive generous pensions and health benefits upon retirement. It is a burden to ask cash-strapped taxpayers to cough up thousands more for each employee who has accumulated vacation time and unused sick days as an added going away bonus upon retirement,” Hagner said.

Holtzman, a Livingston resident, said, "In the past year, New Jersey taxpayers doled out at least $43 million for unused sick and vacation time to retiring workers. ...

"Nowhere in the private sector do we see retirees paid so handsomely not to work,” said Holtzman. “We are paying a huge sum for people in the public workforce to be unproductive. The system must be changed.”

The statement from Hagner and Holtzman stated that according to the state statistics, accumulated sick and vacation days cost each taxpayer $250 for a total of $825 million.

The press conference will be held at noon Thursday, Aug. 25, at the .