New Jersey's Lavish Payday for Retirees

Raymond Carnevale had to act fast. Like a lot of New Jersey government employees, the chief financial officer of Hackensack had spent decades amassing a stockpile of unused vacation and sick days. So when Republican Governor Chris Christie took office last year threatening to end lavish payouts for retiring public-sector workers, Carnevale, 63, punched out for good. He retired in May, netting a $267,573 windfall from the 402 sick and vacation days he'd accrued. "To say it's getting out while the getting's good is too harsh: It's more like getting out while it's safe," says Carnevale, who is eligible for an annual pension of $68,345.

Hackensack, a city of about 43,000, paid $4.6 million in sick and vacation time to 36 retiring workers including Carnevale this budget year. Christie, who has sought to portray civil servants as a pampered class, calls the payouts "boat checks"—as in, it's enough money to buy one—and wants to do away with them. "There's no way to justify paying cash to people for not being sick," Christie said at a May 18 town hall meeting in Monroe Township. "Only in government would we do something like this."