Judge To Hear Lawsuit Opposing Christie's Planned Pension Cuts

NEW JERSEY (CBSNewYork) -- A New Jersey judge is set to hear a lawsuit that opposes Gov. Chris Christie's pension cuts affecting state employees.

"If they want to go to court that's perfectly well within their rights. So let them go to court and we'll see what happens," Gov. Christie said.

Listen to Judge To Hear Lawsuit Opposing Christie's Planned Pension Cuts

Now, the State Troopers union is taking Christie's words to task, WCBS 880's Levon Putney reported.

The union argues the governor cannot take $2.4 billion from public workers' pensions to fill a big budget gap. A Mercer County judge will hear the case.

"It's illegal. It's a violation of the law that he's fined," said CWA Public Workers Union area director Hetty Rosenstein. "The law very specifically says you can't skip payments. You've got to make these payments now and it set out a schedule."

Rosenstein pointed out that scheduling payments was the main part of a deal reached in 2011, in exchange for public workers paying more into the pension fund, raising retirement age and cutting out cost of living adjustments.

Last month Christie made the announcement that he planned to fill a giant budget gap -- accounting for $1 billion this year and $1.7 billion next year, by cutting pension and health care contributions for retired state workers, rather than raising taxes.

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