Connecticut’s public sector is the most heavily unionized of the 50 states. Under Governor Ned Lamont, public unions have secured state employees six consecutive annual pay raises, cumulating to a stunning 33% compound increase.
December 27, 2024
They are the second highest paid state workers in the 50 states.
Their health care benefits are the most robust by far, according to studies in 2021 and 2023.
January 3, 2025
Their pensions ranked in the top quartile of states in the 2021 study.
But how does the state employee union (SEBAC) maintain its unique power?
December 28, 2024
How does it protect such lavish and unaffordable compensation in a state that is in the worst financial condition of the 50 states?
Lee Elci: Alright! I want to ask you before we get into some of the things I'm sure you want to get into. I wanted to quickly ask you, we have a guest coming up who's done extensive research again. But the idea is this, 30 million dollars forgiveness of medical debt. What's your thoughts on that here by the governor.
Red Jahncke: This a function of the combination of immigration non-enforcement, and the national policy, that, if someone appears in the emergency room, you can't deny them if they can't pay. This is what's called non-compensated care. It piles up at the hospitals. Hospitals have to eat it. It sits on their books. They load that debt onto all their other charges in order to recover it. So, the governor is transferring that to a nonprofit [Undue Medical Debt, aka Medical Debt Resolution Inc.] that will officially forgive the debt. It's $30 million that's leaving the books of the hospitals. But what the hospitals are actually getting for that. Maybe you know the figure, but it's nowhere near 30 million. In essence, we [Connecticut citizens] are going to pay for that. People who have medical insurance, are responsible enough to have some kind of coverage. Our bills are going to go up. The nonprofit involved here is not taking on this debt dollar-for-dollar. It's $30 million face amount. They're probably giving the hospitals $2 million [actually, the norm is 1 cent on the dollar].
Lee Elci: Okay? Alright! Yeah. I'll find that number out when we come back. Switching from that, Red, to interest rates. They're going to drop the interest rates again here, thoughts on the drop of our interest rates.
Governor Lamont and the Democrats have increased the wages of Connecticut state employees by a stunning 33%, awarding them six consecutive annual wage increases (two 5.5% raises, then four 4.5% pay bumps). A 2023 study found Connecticut state employee wages to be the second-highest of the 50 states.
December 5, 2024
Yet, Democrats in Hartford claim the state is having trouble recruiting new employees. How so? The active workforce grew from about 47,000 to 49,000 in the last fiscal year, according to the just-released 2024 Report of the Actuary for the state pension fund.
Lee Elci: A lot of glad-handing and patting each other on the back the other day up in Hartford, right?
Red Jahncke: Yeah, it was quite a session—making a mountain out of a molehill.
Lee Elci: All right.
Red Jahncke: They had the Governor, the Comptroller, and the Treasurer all patting themselves on the back for the improvement in the State Employee Pension Fund, which inched up from 52% funded to 55% funded. Only in Connecticut do you pop the corks on the champagne bottles to celebrate a 3% improvement.
There was much back-patting about pensions in the capitol yesterday, as Governor Lamont congratulated Comptroller Scanlon, who lauded Treasurer Russell, both of whom paid homage to Lamont in turn.
December 3, 2024
Why the celebration? The state employee pension fund (SERS) inched up from 52% to 55% funding of the state’s estimated future pension obligations, according to the just-released report of the pension actuaries. Only in Connecticut would a 3% improvement be a cause for popping champagne corks.
It must have been “opposite day” in Hartford, because the real story is that startlingly little progress has been made on pensions during Lamont’s six years in office.
So, what's going on now in this state is an effort, in the community college system, to pay illegal immigrants to go to college. In an era when we have a nationwide and legitimate outcry about the cost of college and the burden of student loans, we're now looking to pay illegal immigrants to go to college.
The Federal Reserve just cut interest rates again, offering more relief to borrowers, except the world’s bigger borrower, Uncle Sam. Federal interest costs are at record highs; they are causing huge federal budget deficits. Yet, deficits and interest costs are poised to escalate further.
November 7, 2024
Such enormous recurring deficits are a grave concern, obviously produced by some combination of insufficient tax revenue and excessive spending. President-Elect Trump and the Republican Congress are almost certain to extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts which are set to expire next year. So, additional tax revenue is unlikely.
While Democrats will scare-monger about extension and insufficient tax revenue, they forget that, before the tax cuts, the U.S. had the highest business tax rates in the developed world. U.S. companies were fleeing to foreign tax jurisdictions, not something we want to happen again. So, spending cuts have to be the main focus. We’ll get to that.
First, the problem. In the federal fiscal year just ended, net interest on the national debt reached $882 billion, surpassing Medicare and National Defense spending for the first time and trailing only Social Security ($1.4 trillion) and Health (excluding Medicare) ($912 billion).
But wait. The Federal Reserve has begun lowering interest rates. Isn’t the problem going away? No...
There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but Connecticut state employees do enjoy virtually free health care. But nothing is free. Someone always pays. In Connecticut, taxpayers pay for free health care for state employees – and, of course, for their own coverage, which has become ever more expensive.
October 24, 2024
A study by Georgetown University’s Center for Health Insurance Reform found that Connecticut state employees pay just 2% of their medical bills. Connecticut state employee health care benefits are the most generous state employee health benefits in the nation. Nationwide, the average state employee pays 14% of his/her medical bills.
November 13, 2024
The health care coverage of Connecticut state employees is the equivalent of a Platinum Plan under ObamaCare – only 1.4% of Connecticut residents purchase (can afford) Platinum Plans on the state exchange.
Connecticut state employees are enjoying their sixth consecutive annual pay raise, pushing their wages up 33% under Ned Lamont and the Democrats. It is time for a wage freeze such as imposed by Lamont’s predecessor Democrat Dannel Malloy.
September 27, 2024
CT state employee wages are now the second highest in the nation. State employee compensation is ... $10.0 billion, or about $2,775 for every man, woman and child in the Nutmeg State.
I know one of the big issues that you've been talking about is state employee wages in the state of Connecticut. Let's talk about state employees and what Ned Lamont and the Democrats have done over the last, roughly, six plus years that they've been in power.
RED JAHNCKE
Let's go right to the core of that issue. While Ned Lamont has been in office, state employees have received a compound 33% increase in their wages. Six consecutive annual wage increases: beginning 5.5%, 5.5%, and four 4.5% amounts.
