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Montclair FMBA Local 20

Pension and Health Benefit Fact Sheet

April 2012

In light of the recent articles written about pensions and health benefits for public employees, the Montclair Firefighters Mutual Benevolent Association felt compelled to try and correct some misconceptions about the benefits our members receive.  

Our members are hard working, middle class citizens who like everyone else, pay for taxes, mortgages, food, gasoline, utilities, and anything else that is required to live in today’s society.  These costs have risen dramatically for us as well as for you. We perform an inherently dangerous job 365 days a year, with professionalism and distinction.  We face higher divorce rates, higher suicide rates, and we die earlier than the average employee.  Our retirement benefits reflect the nature of the risks associated with public safety.

Whether you agree with any of this or not is up to you, but we would like to try and clear the air in regards to pension and health benefits.

- There are at least 7 different public pension systems in New Jersey.  These pensions are funded at different levels and by different agencies.  Police and Firefighters are enrolled in the Police and Firemen’s Retirement System or PFRS.  The PFRS is mainly funded by local municipalities and member contributions.  

-  PFRS Pensions are calculated on base pay alone. Any misconceptions about pension “padding” are false.  Overtime is NOT included in pension calculations.

-  PFRS members contribute 10% of their annual salaries towards the pension which is the highest contribution of all pensions in New Jersey.

- As the recipient of a public pension, a PFRS member is not entitled to Social Security benefits.  The Township of Montclair does not have to pay for them either.  If a PFRS member does have the necessary quarters from previous or other employment to receive Social Security benefits, they are drastically reduced.

- In the late 1990’s, the PFRS was 104% funded.  Governor Whitman “borrowed” millions of dollars from the system and then allowed the municipalities to skip their required payments.  At the height of this pension “holiday” between 2001 and 2004, local governments contributed only 12% of their required payments and since 2008 have skipped on nearly 650 million dollars.  The resulting consequence of this shortsightedness is to blame the Firefighters and Police Officers for the system failing.

- Firefighters and Police Officers have never skipped ONE payment towards their pensions and had no control over the decision by the state and/or the municipality to skip their required contributions.

- In spite of all of this, in the worst economy in a generation, the PFRS today is funded at 79.5%, when 72% is considered solvent.  Had the system not been raided, and regular contributions been made, the PFRS would be funded near 100%.  The burden of paying back what was skipped by the municipalities would have been unnecessary.

- PFRS members DID NOT receive the “9% pension increase” that was provided to some of the other pension systems in the early 2000s.