Posts tagged as “Recent Columns”

Governor Lamont is violating the fiscal guardrails, converting them from a regime of budgetary discipline into a slush fund to pay Connecticut state employees higher wages than in 48 other states and, secondarily, to fund a few priorities of progressive Democrats.

There’s a fight brewing within the ranks of Democrats in Hartford over what changes to make in state budget policy so they can spend more money.

Progressives want to bust the “fiscal guardrails” which both limit spending and redirect billions into the state’s drastically underfunded pension funds. They want to get their hands on the money going into pensions. They want to use that money to spend beyond the guardrails, which are designed to keep spending in line with the state’s economic growth.

Progressives have misdiagnosed the problem. Lamont has caused the problem. The obstacle to more spending is not the fiscal guardrails, but rather the 33% increase in wages that Lamont has lavished on state employees.

Under Lamont, unionized state employee wages have grown $1.1 billion from $3.4 billion annually when he first took office in 2019 to $4.5 billion last fiscal year, as catalogued in the latest report of the pension fund actuary.

If progressives want to spend more money, they need to freeze state employee wages. 

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.

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.

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?

How does it protect such lavish and unaffordable compensation in a state that is in the worst financial condition of the 50 states?

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.

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.

Why the “trouble?”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Unionized state workers in Connecticut are dramatically overpaid. This is unfair and unsustainable. It is time for a wage freeze such as former governor Democrat Dannel Malloy imposed.

Democrats have given unionized state employees six straight annual pay hikes since Ned Lamont took office: 5.5%, 5.5%, 4.5%, 4.5%, 4.5% and 4.5%, which compound to 33%. A state worker making $100,000 in January 2019 is making $133,000 today.