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Posts tagged as “Red Line TV & Radio”

Lamont Busts the Fiscal Guardrails — Talking with Lee Elci on News Now, 94.9FM

Lee Elci: All right welcome! Every Wednesday, we bring on Red Jahncke.

You ready to rock and roll today.

Red Jahncke: I'm ready to rock and roll.

Lee Elci: All right. So, Governor Lamont once called Connecticut's Fiscal Guardrail “sacrosanct.” How significant is his decision to modify the Volatility Cap! And do you think this sets a dangerous precedent.

Red Jahncke: Yes, I do. There are a couple of income tax revenue streams that are capped at a certain level, above which all revenue is redirected into the state employee pension fund. He has raised the cap. So, $300 million less is going to go into the pensions. That's the 1st violation of the fiscal guardrails.

The budget normally takes the surplus from the prior year and transfers it into the next year's budget. That's about $300 million. If he let the $300 million into the budget, plus the $300M extra from raising the level of Volatility Cap, that $600M would send spending over the Spending Cap.

So what's he doing with that year-end surplus from last year that should go into this year’s [budget]. He's intercepting it and creating an off-budget spending program. That's violation number 2.

That's just a violation of good budget practice. If you're going to have a budget, you should have everything in it. What's the point of having discipline within the budget, if every time you want to spend more money, you just go off-budget?

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A Double-Whammy: Lamont’s 33% Wage Hike for State Employees Means $1.1 Billion In Higher Annual Payroll Cost AND $9 Billion In Extra Pension Liabilities – Talking with Lee Elci on News Now, 94.9FM


Lee Elci:
We're doing okay. So up on your website, is your latest piece. Lamont is paying state employees a billion more than Malloy, and we talked a little bit about this last week, but you want to jump back into it again.

Red Jahncke: I want to jump right back in. I will repeat my mantra, which is Lamont has awarded state employees a 33% wage increase. That means some employee making 100,000 when he took office at his first inaugural is now making $133,000. That is unfair and unsustainable. Those wages are far in excess of what's being paid in the private sector. It is unsustainable for the State. This state is not growing. Real economic growth is less than 1%. You can't sustain that kind of pay for State employees with the anemic economy that we have.

There's this debate in Hartford, right? The nonprofits are beating the drum that they are 450 million dollars behind, because their funding has been squeezed over the last decade, and they've lost ground. Workers in the nonprofits who provide many of the social services that the State extends to the needy are vastly underpaid compared to State employees. So they want that 450 million put in the budget this year so that they can catch up. What they don't understand is: in going after the fiscal guardrails, they're going after the wrong problem.

Lee Elci: All right. Well, what's the right problem?

Red Jahncke: Well, the right problem is when you increase wages by 33%, wage costs skyrocket. When…

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Lamont is Paying State Employees $1 Billion More Than Malloy – Talking with Lee Elci on News Now, 94.9FM

Lee Elci: Welcome back. I’ve been talking about this all day—since January 6th was on Monday. There are still reports of people being held without trial. What’s your take on this situation?

Red Jahncke: Anyone held without charges is a clear violation of the Constitution—it’s entirely unjust. They should be released immediately. As for the broader situation, I think many innocent people got caught up in something they never intended to participate in. Things just spiraled out of control. I’m sure President-elect Trump will pardon some of them. However, those who led or planned the attack on the Capitol shouldn’t be pardoned or released. That’s my stance.

Lee Elci: Fair enough. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Let’s switch gears—today marks the opening of the legislative session. I figured you’d be out there waving a flag that says, “Lower State Employee Pay.” Were you?

Red Jahncke: You know the mantra by now, right? Can you repeat it?

Lee Elci: You go ahead—give it to us.

Red Jahncke: Thirty-three percent.

Lee Elci: Oh, yes.

Red Jahncke: State employees, under Governor Ned Lamont, have received a 33% wage increase, which amounts to an additional billion dollars across the workforce. And that’s just within the executive branch—not everyone on the state payroll. To put it in perspective, state wages have risen from $3.4 billion in 2018 to $4.5 billion for fiscal year 2024. Calling this unsustainable is an understatement.

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Medical Debt and Interest Rates – Talking with Lee Elci on News Now, 94.9FM

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.

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Opposite Day in Hartford: The Myth of “Pension Progress” – Talking With Lee Elci, News Now Radio, 94.9

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.

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Paying Illegal Immigrants to Go to College

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.

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Talking With CT GOP Chairman Ben Proto About a State Employee Wage Freeze

BEN PROTO

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.

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Gov. Lamont’s 33% Wage Increase for State Workers – Talking with Joe Markley on WTIC 1080 Newstalk Radio, Aug. 13, 2024

Segment One. Segment Two. Segment Three. Segment Four. Segment Five. Segment Six. Red JahnckeRed 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. Like This Column

Gov. Lamont’s 33% Wage Increase for State Workers – Talking with Lee Elci, News Now Radio 94.9 FM, April 17, 2024

Red JahnckeRed 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. Like This Column