The Red Line

CT Pays Pensions Higher Than Salaries; Using Medicaid as a Slush Fund – On With Lee Elci on News Now, 94.9FM, June 11th

By Red Jahncke on June 18, 2025

CT Pays Pensions Higher Than Salaries; Using Medicaid as a Slush Fund – On With Lee Elci on News Now, 94.9FM, June 11th

Lee Elci: We talked last week. Your latest column that came out, I think, is a bombshell, if you will. Pension spiking in Connecticut with state employees retiring on pensions 38% higher than their salaries. How did this practice become so entrenched?

Red Jahncke: It's been a practice [since] the 1980s, but most states have begun to rein it in. It's been the most dramatically abused in the blue states with heavy public sector unionization. California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, all the usual suspects. But, what's going on in our state is jaw dropping, even to people who know this game. The idea that people are retiring with beginning pensions far in excess of their last salary is just an eye popping and astounding condition.

Lee Elci: Why do you think Connecticut, this little state, is the second most unionized state?

In Connecticut, pension-spiking is alive and well

By Red Jahncke on June 10, 2025

In Connecticut, pension-spiking is alive and well

Some public sector union abuses are not only alive and well, but more egregious than ever.

In Connecticut, state employees are retiring with pension benefits higher than their last salary. How? It's a classic scheme known as "spiking" — that is, to work enormous hours of overtime just before retirement for the sole purpose of boosting the pensions calculation, which includes overtime pay in immediate pre-retirement years.

States Are Using Medicaid as a Slush Fund

By Red Jahncke on June 3, 2025

States Are Using Medicaid as a Slush Fund

Senator Ron Johnson and others gave the One Big Beautiful Bill a cold reception when it arrived in the Senate, warning that the bill will balloon deficits and debt, which are already ginormous. Jamie Dimon, J.P. Morgan Chase CEO predicted a crisis – not if, but as soon as six months from now.

There’s no greater contributor to the recent rapid growth in deficits and debt than Medicaid under the Democrats, and, thus, no more appropriate GOP target financially and politically.

Medicaid’s explosive growth results both from recently expanded enrollment and from long-running problems in the Medicaid provider tax scheme that forty-nine states employ.

The Bill controls enrollment somewhat by imposing work requirements on able-bodied single childless adults. Yet, House Republicans punted on the Medicaid provider tax scheme, which a 2018 Senate report called a “shell game.”

CT State Pensions Are Higher Than Salaries – On with Lee Elci, News Now, 94.9FM, 5/28

By Red Jahncke on May 31, 2025

CT State Pensions Are Higher Than Salaries – On with Lee Elci, News Now, 94.9FM, 5/28

Lee Elci: So, what did you want to talk about today?

Red Jahncke: We've done a study here at the Townsend Group. I think we gave a preview last week, and, the study's out. It's posted on the website. Website upper right-hand corner. It's overtime spiking by Connecticut state employees. Looking first at the Department of Correction.

We looked at the ten employees in each of the last five fiscal years who clocked the highest overtime pay. You would think that is 50 individuals. It’s actually runs 28 employees because some repeat year to year.

And we looked at their overtime in relation to their previous years of working overtime. We looked at it in relation to their current or last salary. And if they have retired, in comparison to their pension benefit.

11 of the 28 have retired. They have retired with a pension benefit higher than their last salary. They are going to make more money in retirement than they ever made on the job.

The “Surpluses” Are Not Surpluses

By Red Jahncke on May 7, 2025

The “Surpluses” Are Not Surpluses

Last week, the media reported that the state is running huge “surpluses.” Yet, Democrats say state programs are being severely squeezed; they want to bust the “fiscal guardrails” and spend more. Republicans say the state is deep in debt, and in danger of falling even deeper; they want to preserve the guardrails.

May 7, 2025

The public is confused. If there are surpluses, why is program spending being squeezed? If there are surpluses, why is debt growing?

The confusion persists because the elephant in the room is seldom discussed....

The Officers in Blue are 100% Red

By Red Jahncke on May 5, 2025

The Officers in Blue are 100% Red

Connecticut Senate and House Republicans have proposed a two-year wage freeze for state employees. No surprise. State employees under Governor Lamont have received six consecutive annual pay hikes that have elevated their pay by 33%, a whopping amount not seen in the private sector.

The first test of Republican resolve will come this week when a vote on a proposed wage increase in the fourth “open” year of a very generous contract for state police is expected to be called for a vote.

This vote is an obvious trap, with Democrats suggesting that a vote against the contract is a vote against law and order.

The trap is part of a strategy to maneuver the GOP into approving a robust pay raise for state police in order to justify an equal increase for the rest of state employees.

That’s the financial dimension. Now to the political dimension. In 2020, virtually every police union in the country at every level endorsed Republican candidates.

Nothing has happened in Connecticut to change that extremely strong sentiment.

De Facto Wage Freeze for State Employees

By Red Jahncke on April 23, 2025

De Facto Wage Freeze for State Employees

Lamont just imposed a de facto wage freeze on CT state employees, but he didn't announce it publicly. Why?

To Approve or “Reject” The New State Labor Contract

By Red Jahncke on April 8, 2025

To Approve or “Reject” The New State Labor Contract

Gov. Lamont is about to submit a new state employee contract to the General Assembly for legislators’ approval. The current wage agreement expires in less than three months.

Yet, with union-friendly Democrats holding supermajorities in both the Senate and the House, approval is a virtual certainty, why waste time on this? Because even free-spending Democrats may not want to go on record approving the largesse that Lamont has ladled out to unionized state employees and seems poised to ladle out again. Herein lies the suspense in this story.

12 Ways Lamont Fails to Grasp the Impact of Giving State Employees a 33% Pay Raise

By Red Jahncke on March 22, 2025

12 Ways Lamont Fails to Grasp the Impact of Giving State Employees a 33% Pay Raise

Governor Lamont gave an interview to CT Examiner last Tuesday, in which he was asked: “After annual pay raises for state employees amounting to 33 percent since 2019, would you consider a wage freeze similar to one put in place by your predecessor, Dannel Malloy…” His answers were glib and uninformed.

Number One: His first response was to say, “I have a hard time hiring.”

March 22, 2025

No. He has had no difficulty whatsoever. 18 months ago in December 2023, Dan Haar of Hearst Media wrote an article entitled “CT state hiring is up sharply.”Haar stated:

“So, in just one year, Connecticut agencies hired a net new 2,000 workers.”

Haar reported that the executive workforce reached 26,600 full-time employees, about equal to its pre-pandemic level. That’s an 8.1% expansion in just twelve months.

Related Content: Trouble Hiring CT State Employees? Really?

Number Two:

Lamont’s Stealth Hiring Freeze — Talking with Lee Elci on News Now, 94.9FM

By Red Jahncke on March 19, 2025

Lamont’s Stealth Hiring Freeze — Talking with Lee Elci on News Now, 94.9FM

Lee Elci: Your recent column discusses Governor Lamont’s quiet implementation of a hiring freeze on state employees. You describe this as a stealth move. Why is he doing this silently?

Red Jahncke: Well, I think he's been caught off guard. State employee compensation has skyrocketed, consuming a large portion of the budget and squeezing out other spending. The question becomes: What do you cut? Lamont is under significant pressure from progressives in his party, so he halted hiring within the state workforce for the remainder of March, April, May, and June to remain within the budget—at least temporarily. However, this is just a preview of a much larger impending problem.

Lee Elci: You have to admit, this seems like a small victory. You've been addressing the 33% wage increase over the last five or six years. This hiring freeze appears to be a win.

Red Jahncke: Yes. Labor costs are determined by two factors: the pay rate and the size of the workforce. We've criticized the state for both significantly increasing pay rates (a 33% raise) and simultaneously expanding the workforce. That's the classic double whammy. Over the past two years, the cost of the unionized workforce has risen by 18%. Many people are confused about fiscal guardrails, particularly the volatility cap. However, the key issue here isn't the fiscal guardrails themselves but rather the excessive compensation of state employees crowding out other spending.

Lee Elci: Lamont has a Yale background he often references. Still, he didn't seem to anticipate the combined impact of pay rates and workforce size on labor costs. What does this suggest about his fiscal acumen?