08/26/2026
Meet Rocco DiGerolamo. Retired New Jersey State Trooper. He has a question for Trenton.
"When you came in, you understood you were going to be taken care of in the end. So you sacrificed in the beginning to know that you were going to be well taken care of. And that was the case when I came out. And then, little by little, it's this and then this and this. It keeps just going. And after a while, I mean, you say — 'Was it worth it?'"
Rocco isn't asking for sympathy. He's asking for a straight answer.
New Jersey State Troopers put their lives on the line every day on the Turnpike, in our communities, at 3 a.m. when everyone else is asleep. They accepted lower pay upfront because they were promised security at the end. That was the deal.
Trenton broke it. Slowly. Quietly. Cut by cut.
"It's like the death by a thousand cuts," Rocco says. "They've been chipping away at our benefits. Little by little, they just kept chipping away."
The State Treasurer testified this summer that a cost-of-living adjustment for retired public employees is approximately 25 years away.
Twenty-five years.
Meanwhile the budget signed on June 30th found $360 million for midnight pork spending, $110 million to bail out Jersey City, and $20 million in legal defense funds for non-citizen voters.
There was money for all of that. There is apparently no money for Rocco.
Assembly Republicans have sponsored legislation to restore COLA increases for retired State Police, law enforcement, teachers, and state workers. Democrats haven't moved it.
Rocco kept his end of the bargain. It's time Trenton kept its.
Watch his story. Share it with someone who needs to hear it. 👇
