Free Daily Headlines :

  • COVID-19
  • Vaccine Info
  • Money
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Justice
  • More
    • Environment
    • Economic Development
    • Gaming
    • Investigations
    • Social Services
    • TRANSPORTATION
  • Opinion
    • CT Viewpoints
    • CT Artpoints
DONATE
Reflecting Connecticut’s Reality.
    COVID-19
    Vaccine Info
    Money
    Politics
    Education
    Health
    Justice
    More
    Environment
    Economic Development
    Gaming
    Investigations
    Social Services
    TRANSPORTATION
    Opinion
    CT Viewpoints
    CT Artpoints

LET�S GET SOCIAL

Show your love for great stories and out standing journalism

Labor savings: The big unknown in Malloy’s new budget

  • Money
  • by Keith M. Phaneuf
  • February 3, 2016
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"
Lori Pelletier, head of Connecticut AFL-CIO

ctmirror.org

Lori Pelletier, head of Connecticut AFL-CIO

It might be the single-largest x-factor in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposed budget revisions for the coming fiscal year.

When budget director Benjamin Barnes warned Wednesday that the workforce might need to shrink by “thousands” in 2016-17 to hit savings targets, labor leaders made two points.

They weren’t sure exactly what it means. But they were sure that it sounded bad.

And while the legislature now begins its review of the governor’s budget, the labor question might not be resolved by legislation alone, but also through collective bargaining.

Malloy, who has seen criticism of his budget policies intensify since winning re-election — as deficit projections continue to increase — tried a new approach Wednesday to reframe the debate.

The administration argued Connecticut no longer should rely on projections of how many additional dollars it needs to maintain its full array of services and programs.

Rather it should first determine what revenues it will receive — based on current tax rates — and then decide what core programs it will keep.

The administration’s approach hinges largely on across-the-board cuts — taking 5.75 percent this year out of each agency and from non-education municipal aid.

And Barnes warned Wednesday that a similar approach but with a deeper cut, about 9 percent, probably would be needed next year.

As programs and services are scaled back or eliminated, fewer staff will be needed.

Malloy was careful never to utter the word “layoffs.”

But Barnes said “we will be reducing the number of funded positions by several thousand. Exactly how that breaks out between attrition and layoffs is unknown.”

“That is short-sighted,” Lori J. Pelletier, head of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, said. “When you lay off state employees, you harm public services.”

But you also hurt communities,” she quickly added. “You hurt the economy. You are going to have state employees watching every penny” and afraid to spend money in their towns as they fear unemployment. “The people who are not working won’t be spending money either.”

“Any kind of austerity budget is only going to harm Connecticut’s citizens and stunt economic growth,” said Larry Dorman, spokesman for Council 4 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

AFSCME Council 4 spokesman Larry Dorman

CTMirror.org

AFSCME Council 4 spokesman Larry Dorman

“Eliminating jobs that provide vital services, like ensuring we have safe drinking water or caring for the disabled in our communities, is a dangerous path for our state,” said Jennifer Schneider, spokeswoman for the largest health care workers union, SEIU 1199.

Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, hopes it won’t come to layoffs.

“We’re hoping that other savings can be found,” he said, adding that government can downsize in less painful ways.

According to Comptroller Kevin P. Lembo’s office, the state workforce has averaged 1,621 retirements per year — if you exclude two outliers.

In 2009, the last year an early retirement incentive plan was offered, 4,749 employees left service. And in 2011, when Malloy and the unions agreed to tighten benefits — but delayed the changes for several months to encourage retirements without cash incentives — 2,947 left the job.

But not all state jobs are equal, and vacancies in one agency cannot always be filled with employees from another department that might be overstaffed.

The unions and some legislators have argued since 2009 that some of Connecticut’s largest and most vital departments, such as Transportation and Social Services, are badly understaffed.

Leaders of the Republican minorities in the House and Senate said Wednesday that, while they welcome efforts to consolidate the workforce, Malloy is nibbling around the edges and avoiding the real means to cut labor costs: concessions.

Connecticut bargains collectively with all of its unions combined to fix retirement and other benefits. Wages and working conditions are negotiated separately with more than 30 different bargaining units.

The existing benefits contract with the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition runs through 2022, and the GOP has been clamoring since last April for Malloy to ask SEBAC to come to the table.

“The structural changes (that benefits concessions could bring) are meat here,” Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven said. “There has to be more to this.”

House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, said Democratic rejections of the GOP call for immediate labor savings “is like an old record that used to skip over and over again. We’ve got to get very serious about structural changes.”

Fasano and Klarides got some company on Wednesday.

House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, on Wednesday became the first Democratic legislative leader to  say the governor should seek to reopen the SEBAC contract.

“Our role at this time would be to encourage the governor to call for those” savings, he said.

The administration repeatedly has rejected this call, arguing that since it currently is negotiating new wage agreements with bargaining units — and hoping to cut costs there — now is not the time to seek benefits concessions.

Malloy also has another complication to handle.

The governor is seeking to restructure Connecticut’s cash-starved pension funds for state employees and for public school teachers. The goal is to lessen spiking pension contributions expected to slam the state budget a decade from now.

The governor is expected to have to negotiate with the state employee unions to rearrange payments into that pension fund, and might find them less than cooperative on this front if he asks for benefits givebacks at the same time.

Labor leaders have spent much of the past year reminding legislators and Malloy that they agreed to concessions packages in 2009 and in 2011.

And SEBAC weighed in on the concessions question for the first time Wednesday, issuing a statement with comments from three union leaders.

The theme was clear: Connecticut should look to the wealthy, and not its employees, to close the budget gap.

Cindy Stretch, an English professor at Southern Connecticut State University, said “the latest prescription for Connecticut’s budget woes is a double-dose of arsenic.”

“What’s wrong with our state budget is what’s wrong with our state economy: wealth is increasing, but almost all of it is going to a tiny, privileged few,” said adult probation officer Carmen Roda.

“Political wisdom says politicians won’t have the guts to ask the rich to pay their taxes during an election year,” added Xavier Gordon, a career development specialist for the Department of Labor. “But we think having the courage to do the right thing to move working families and the middle class forward is exactly what voters are looking for in a time of growing inequality and a shrinking middle class.”

Sign up for CT Mirror's free daily news summary.

Free to Read. Not Free to Produce.

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit newsroom. 90% of our revenue comes from people like you. If you value our reporting please consider making a donation. You'll enjoy reading CT Mirror even more knowing you helped make it happen.

YES, I'LL DONATE TODAY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Keith M. Phaneuf A winner of numerous journalism awards, Keith Phaneuf has been CT Mirror’s state finances reporter since it launched in 2010. The former State Capitol bureau chief for The Journal Inquirer of Manchester, Keith has spent most of 31 years as a reporter specializing in state government finances, analyzing such topics as income tax equity, waste in government and the complex funding systems behind Connecticut’s transportation and social services networks. A former contributing writer to The New York Times, Keith is a graduate of and a former journalism instructor at the University of Connecticut.

SEE WHAT READERS SAID

RELATED STORIES
Bills to repeal motor vehicle tax and cap property taxes are in political limbo
by Keith M. Phaneuf

The motor vehicle tax bill died in committee but could be revived; Property tax cap passed on party lines.

CT finance panel approves tax cuts for poor and middle class, restaurant bailout
by Keith M. Phaneuf

The plan includes one of the largest tax breaks in state history for working class families.

Democrats want CT to spend $180 million more on municipal aid. What does that mean for your town?
by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

Legislative Democrats recommend that the state spend $180 million or 7.4% more more in municipal aid next fiscal year.

Legislature presents its own budget plan, and the stage is set for debate
by Keith M. Phaneuf

Democrats on the Appropriations Committee and Gov. Ned Lamont are headed for a showdown over the next two-year state budget.

CT Democrats to propose beefed-up spending plan
by Keith M. Phaneuf

The Appropriations Committee will propose a two-year state spending plan Wednesday that bolsters municipal aid, higher education and social services.

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion Playing politics with people’s healthcare is always wrong
by Jody Barr, Jan Hochadel, Jeff Leake, Dave Glidden, Carl Chism and Mike Holmes

For the past decade, towns, school boards and cities throughout the state have been able to provide their employees high-quality healthcare through the Connecticut Partnership […]

Opinion A pandemic lesson for CSCU leaders: affordable, accessible childcare is critical
by Brandy Sellitto

If there can be anything good that has come from the last year and the horrors of living through this pandemic, perhaps it is the renewed focus on the need for affordable and accessible childcare. As a teen mom, I know first-hand the need for access to safe, reliable, and developmentally appropriate childcare at an affordable price.

Opinion Children’s mental health needs continue to soar: The second pandemic lawmakers must address
by Gabriella Izzo

“She was my happy kid,” a parent told me when I cared for her child who was experiencing a mental health crisis. My patient recovered medically within a few days, however, she remained in the hospital for over a week waiting for placement at a psychiatric rehabilitation facility. We must improve our mental health system and you can be a critical part of making that happen.

Opinion H.B. 6620 — A closer reading of a flawed legislative proposal
by Ann M Mulready

The Connecticut Association for Reading Research (CARR) is deeply concerned regarding H.B. 6620, An Act Concerning the Right to Read and Addressing Certain Opportunity Gaps. It is based on a concept that is seriously problematic in that it subordinates comprehension to fluency.

Artwork Grand guidance
by Anne:Gogh

In a world of systemic oppression aimed towards those of darker skintones – representation matters. We are more than our equity elusive environments, more than […]

Artwork Shea
by Anthony Valentine

Shea is a story about race and social inequalities that plague America. It is a narrative that prompts the question, “Do you know what it’s […]

Artwork The Declaration of Human Rights
by Andres Chaparro

Through my artwork I strive to create an example of ideas that reflect my desire to raise social consciousness, and cultural awareness. Jazz music is […]

Artwork ‘A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever’
by Richard DiCarlo | Derby

During times like these it’s often fun to revisit something familiar and approach things with a different slant. I have been taking some Pop culture […]

Twitter Feed
A Twitter List by CTMirror

Engage

  • Reflections Tickets & Sponsorships
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Submit to Viewpoints
  • Submit to ArtPoints
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Commenting Guidelines
  • Legal Notices
  • Contact Us

About

  • About CT Mirror
  • Announcements
  • Board
  • Staff
  • Sponsors and Funders
  • Donors
  • Friends of CT Mirror
  • History
  • Financial
  • Policies
  • Strategic Plan

Opportunity

  • Advertising and Sponsorship
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Use of Photography
  • Work for Us

Go Deeper

  • Steady Habits Podcast
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Five Things

The Connecticut News Project, Inc. 1049 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. Phone: 860-218-6380

© Copyright 2021, The Connecticut News Project. All Rights Reserved. Website by Web Publisher PRO