Citizens group hosting public forum on Social Security reforms

By JOHN REITMEYER, Burlington County Times, June 1, 2005

MOUNT LAUREL -- A citizens group has scheduled a town hall meeting Saturday [6/4/2005] to discuss proposed reforms to the Social Security system.

The event, which is open to the public, is slated to begin at 2 p.m. at the Birchfield Community Center on Birchfield Court.

The forum is sponsored by New Jersey Citizen Action, a statewide organization with paid and volunteer members affiliated with labor, the NAACP and other advocacy groups.

The organization opposes a set of Social Security reforms proposed by President Bush, including one that calls for the creation of volunteer investment accounts for workers born after 1950.

Those accounts would be tantamount to privatizing the Social Security system, said Juanita Howard, the organizer of the event.

"Citizens need to get the information they need about this and make sure our elected representatives do the right thing," Howard said.

Featured panelists at the forum will include Howard; Evesham political consultant Jason Springer; Cherry Hill attorney Barry Yellin; Cape May businessman Bob Mullock; and Jennifer Armiger of the New Jersey chapter of the National Organization for Women.

The group has also invited U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton, R-3rd of Mount Holly, to participate as a panelist.  A spokesman for Saxton, who has yet to take a position on Bush's proposal, said the congressman is not expected to attend the forum.

Howard organized a protest at Saxton's legislative office in Mount Holly last month to express the organization's frustration with the congressman's failure to meet with the group to discuss Social Security reform.

Saxton has "left the door open" to a meeting with the group once a formal plan on Social Security is advanced before Congress, spokesman Jeff Sagnip Hollendonner said.

Email: jreitmeyer@phillyBurbs.com