Mayor: If NJ Ends Sick, Vacation Payouts, We're OK

Scott Rosenbush of Morris Township was one of 234 mayors from around New Jersey who joined Gov. Chris Christie earlier this month in a call to end sick and vacation payouts for retiring employees.

The governor—who's long made the argument it doesn't make sense to get paid for simply not getting sick—, saying the public sector should act more like the private one when it comes to treatment of departing employees.

He said the practice of payouts for unused time costs taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars a year—and often results in balloon payments of hundreds of thousands of dollars for longtime employees who've banked decades of unused sick days.

But Rosenbush said Morris Township already has its own policies to limit payouts in place for many years, and wouldn't see a big impact if the governor got his way.

“We established maximum payouts years ago, but a lot of towns don’t have them, so I signed on,” he said.

Morris Township would owe current public employees $1,762,352.24 for unused sick and vacation time if they were to leave without using the days, according to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs; the average home would contribute $185.76 in taxes toward that amount. Neighboring Morris Plains would owe 449,107, with an impact on the average home of $134.25.

There has never been a big payout in Morris Township, Administrator Timothy Quinn said.

“There have always been safeguards in the collective bargaining agreements and in the municipal code,” Quinn said.

Employees could never carry over vacation days for more than one year, sometimes six months, depending on the particular collective bargaining agreement, Quinn said. In addition, anyone hired after 1998 has vacation payout capped at $25,000 and anyone hired after 2000 has it capped at $15,000.

Vacation is dependent on years of service. Under the current code, employees receive two weeks vacation after one year; three weeks between five and 12 years; four weeks between 12 and 17 years; five weeks between 17 and 22 years and six weeks after 22 years. Under new regulations going into effect Jan. 1, 2012, vacation will be capped at five weeks. The ordinance establishing those regulations was adopted at a recent  township committee meeting.

The township has 142 full-time employees and about one-third of them have worked for the municipality for more than 15 years. There are a few who have worked there more than 40 years, a number more than 30 years and a few more between 25 and 30.

Employees get 15 sick days a year, Quinn said, and they are monitored closely to make sure there isn’t “abuse or pattern,” he said.

While they can carry over sick days, there is a cap on that as well.

“They can take a maximum of 100 days, but are paid for 40 percent of that,” Quinn said. “There are other provisions for employees hired after 1996. In general, the maximum payout would be $15,000.”

That $15,000 cap for sicktime payouts is the same as one the legislature sent Christie in late 2010. Christie vetoed the bill, saying the number was arbitrary—and only a complete ban on sicktime payouts makes sense.