New Directions New Jersey, the PAC that promotes Gov. Phil Murphy’s agenda, just made a big ad buy of $1.25 million, according to NJ Globe. The ad, which takes place at the baseball stadium where the Trenton Thunder play when there’s not a pandemic, promises voters that Murphy will “build a new economy working for everyone.”

I’m guessing it’s not a coincidence that this ad is running while Murphy is negotiating with legislators over his proposed nine-month state budget proposal of $32.7 billion that includes taking out a $4.5 billion dollar loan to refill empty coffers.

That’s why we’re rated #50 among states for fiscal health: We have way too much debt.

And that’s I’m guessing it’s not a coincidence that New Directions, almost entirely funded by New Jersey Education Association, is running the ad right now. Our pension system is underfunded by more than $100 billion, most of that from the Teachers Pension and Annuity Fund (TPAF), and poised to run out of money in 2027. Turns out that 85% of the bonds will be used to pay down pension debt.

That’s according to a new report by Mike Lilley of the Sunlight Policy Center. Subtitled, “A Case Study of What Happens When a Special Interest Like the NJEA Becomes Too Powerful,”he reveals several “ugly truths” about how the union is complicit in our pension crisis and how NJ taxpayers are getting a raw deal.

Lilley concludes,

New Jersey citizens need to understand what happened in the past. They need to know that the sorry, avoidable plight of TPAF is what happens when a special interest accumulates too much political power. They need to know that the taxpayer-funded NJEA was able to dominate both political parties and construct the pension system it wanted, and then chose to stand by and let TPAF’s financial soundness deteriorate, heedless of the cost to future generations. Now the NJEA wants to escape the blame and stick the state and its citizens with the ruinous bill.

You make the call.