Lee Elci: All right, here we go. Ladies and gentlemen. Every Wednesday, about the same time, we bring on our very good friend, Red Jahncke. Yes, you can read what he’s written in places like the Wall Street Journal and Connecticut Examiner. Red, Good morning, pal. How are you?
Red Jahncke: Hey I’m good. Lee, how are you?
Lee Elci: So you want to do you want to start out real quick? Let’s talk hockey first. I did hear something recently with the original six. Is the first time in history where the original founding members of the NHL, all of the teams, none of them made the playoffs. Is that true?
Red Jahncke: No no no no no. The Leafs are in. Let me, kind of roll through. Not Chicago, not New York, not Boston. But the interesting one is Montreal. Okay, Montreal is on the bubble. There’s one game remaining for Montreal and one game remaining for the Blue Jackets. So if Montreal wins, they’re in. If they don’t and Columbus wins, they’re tied on points. And it’s going to be decided by goal differential. And the Blue Jackets have a positive goal differential and Montreal slightly negative. So the Blue Jackets will be in.
Lee Elci: All right. All right. Gotcha. I don’t watch a lot of hockey, but occasionally I will watch some playoff hockey and, you know, all the other sports pale in comparison when it comes to playoff hockey because there’s nothing like it. Right?
Red Jahncke: It is. It is, you know, most pro sports playing so many games over the regular season, you have to believe that the players are playing at 85, 90%. In hockey, you’ve got to play 82 games. It’s grueling. Playoff hockey, 110% all the players. There’s not a single player on the ice who’s dogging it in any way. It is the highest tempo that you can conceive. It’s fabulous hockey. Ignore the regular season, that’s fine. But watch playoff hockey.
Lee Elci: It’s extraordinary and it starts. You said this week coming right, next week is coming I guess. All right, well, we’ll see what happens with that. Let me, shift gears. You’ve written a column “12 ways Lamont Fails to Grasp the Impact of Giving State Employees a 33% Raise.” And I know we’ve been talking about this a lot. But what I wanted to do today, if you don’t mind, is because we didn’t get a chance to really dissect the entire column. In my hand, I have a set of dice Red, You have 12 ways. I’m going to roll the dice and whatever number comes up, we’ll talk about that particular issue in your column. How’s that sound?
Red Jahncke: That’s that’s great. All right.
Lee Elci: Here we go. The dice are out and the number is six. I would like you to talk to me about number six, Lamont saying, “Remember, we’ve had a pretty good inflation in the last six years.” Well, inflation over that period was 2.5%. Take it away, Red,
Red Jahncke: First, just a little bit of context here. This is a column, of course, about, the wage increases and the overall compensation, that Lamont has doled out to state employees. Putting the framework to it, state employee compensation, i.e., labor cost, is the largest single expense that the state has. So to ignore the largest single expense is somewhat nutty.
But, I’ll go to number six. Yes, 33% for state employees under Ned Lamont. Six years inflation over the period, 25%. The average private sector worker in the nation 23%. State employees are 10% ahead of their compatriots in the private sector. Just not fair, just not sustainable. I mean, the private sector is what generates the economic activity that supports the government expenditures we make. If the private sector is lagging, we can’t sustain a 10% premium for public sector workers.
Lee Elci: Again, Red Jahncke is our guest talking about one of his columns. He has been beating the drum about a wage freeze for state employees. So, you know, Red, how long is this battle going to go on? I mean, because, you know, the budget eventually has to be put put down. I mean, what are we talking about time frame wise? So people out there know what they’re dealing with.
Red Jahncke: Lee, I, I am, somewhat flabbergasted that the governor has not submitted an agreement with SEBAC. the State Employee Bargaining Alliance Coalition. They are 30 some odd bargaining units gang together and and negotiate jointly on these contracts. But I’m amazed that it hasn’t been submitted to the legislature yet. We have two and a half months left on the wage side of the contract. So this thing needs to come. And everyone I speak with has long since been expecting it to be submitted to the General Assembly.
Lee Elci: How long are they in session? Four? I don’t have that in front of me. It’s only like a another month or so, isn’t it? The get out of May, right.
Red Jahncke: My understanding is, by the state constitution, June 5th is the last day of the session. Everything needs to be wrapped up by June 5th. So, we’re counting days.
Lee Elci: All right, all right, Red Jahncke with us. Red, I’m going to roll the dice one more time. We’ll hit one more of these, and then, we’ve got to go to a break. You’re ready?
Red Jahncke: Sounds good.
Lee Elci: All right, give me number 11. Can you break down number 11 on your list.
Red Jahncke: All right, to 11. So this is actually somewhat compelling. State employee compensation is the largest single cost in state operations. It exceeds 10 billion annually. Right. We were just discussing that. Right. Well, in Ned’s two year budget proposal that he submitted to the General Assembly in February, he set aside $500 million for wage increases, in what’s called the Reserve for Salary Adjustment account, and the Office of Fiscal Analysis in the General Assembly estimated fringe benefits will increase $740 million. So $1.2 billion round numbers. Right under the constitutional spending cap, the allowable increase in spending is only $2.2 billion. So there goes 60% of the allowable increase into the pockets of state employees.
And everyone in Hartford is in a panic. Where will we find the money? We’re bound inside these fiscal guardrails.
The problem is not the fiscal guardrails. The problem is the constitutional spending cap, and it is constitutional. Unless the Democrats want to violate the Constitution, they’re going to be left holding the short end of the stick on the increase in spending. They’re only going to be able to spend $1 billion out of the $2.2, because $1.2 is going to state employees.
Lee Elci: Red Jahncke is with us. Red before I let you go. Did you see the “hot mike” [story] the Yankee Institute reported that this morning. I don’t know if you got a chance to see that by any chance. That. You saw that, right? All four of them are yakking it up [on an ] open mic. And they basically said that, we can tax our own constituents; they’ll never know the difference. I just wanted to get your thoughts on that.
Red Jahncke: Well, yeah, it’s it’s it’s just, window into the ultimate arrogance of government. And, in fact, that is a fundamental of the deep state, which is you’re taxed in ways you don’t even know. And and it’s absolutely true. It’s why all this stuff needs to be turned upside down. And we need a clean slate. I could Jeffersonian on you and quote him to the effect that we need a revolution every 20 years. Just to clean this stuff out. It is noxious.
Lee Elci: Yeah. I mean, if this doesn’t make you run to support Republican mindsets and Republican people, I don’t know what will. They’re basically laughing at at their constituents because they just don’t know any better. We’re just going to tax you. They won’t know any difference. I and I’ve been saying this for years, read when the doors are closed and they’re in the room by themselves, they are laughing at you. Now we know they’re laughing right in your face. So.
Red Jahncke: Yeah! The public benefit charge on utility bills is actually a state tax. They deflect it onto Eversource and get everybody mad at the utility companies. They’re not putting that charge on there. That’s the state. But people are cottoning onto this lately. I’ll just leave you with this. This column “12 Ways” has more reads by a factor of ten than any other column I’ve posted on my website.
Lee Elci: Oh, that’s great. That’s fantastic.
Red Jahncke: This is lighting up. People are becoming aware of what’s going on.
Lee Elci: Well, I’m glad we need people to recognize that. Go to Red’s website: the-red-line.com. You can read the column, I’ll repost it on my socials as well so you can take a look. And of course, Red films, all of these [interviews]. So you can go on the website and take a look at me and him. if you’ve got 8 or 10 minutes. Red, thank you, man. I’ll talk to you next week. I appreciate it.
Red Jahncke: It’s been great. Thanks.
Lee Elci: Have a good one. Red Jahncke there. Short break. We’ll come back.
Red Jahncke is a nationally recognized columnist, who writes about politics and policy. His columns appear in numerous national publications, such as The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, USA Today, The Hill, Issues & Insights and National Review as well as many Connecticut newspapers.