Op-ed: Malloy should identify savings from SEBAC agreement

Don Gonsalves

I believe one of the very key issues that should be discussed in detail and made public  before the elections for governor in November, should be the so-called savings from the agreement with SEBAC (the State Employees Bargaining Agency Coalition).

When Dannel P. Malloy ran for office in 2010, he promised shared sacrifices. This was a basic principal of his administration. The state workers were to save $1 billion for each of the first two years of his administration in exchange for a huge tax increase on all of the taxpayers. The savings were suppose to be now, not 20 years in the future.

Before the ink was even dry on the tax increase, he reduced the savings to $1.6 billion over two years from the original promise of $2 billion. However, this is not the main problem.

Malloy laid out a so-called plan to save the $1 billion. The main problem is that the amount saved was nowhere near $1 billion, and even worse, no official government organization has actually reported on the results. Even the Office of Fiscal Analysis, which is supposed to be the state’s unbiased analysis organization, indicated that it was impossible to measure the results as the plan was so ill defined.

I believe Malloy should be forced to issue a report indicating the original plan to save $1 billion and the final results by item.

As just one example of the serious shortfall, the new health care plan was supposed to produce $200 million in savings or income as they predicted only 50 percent would take the new plan, and those that did not take it would have to pay an additional $200 million. As 98 percent took the new plan, there was no savings. So $200 million of the $1 billion disappeared.

I could also give other examples, such as no savings ($85 million) from employee suggestions.

Don Gonsalves is a South Windsor resident.