Tag: Connecticut SERF

Defending Red Jahncke: Public Sector Employees And Their Preferential Treatment

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://ctexaminer.com/2021/03/26/defending-red-jahncke-public-sector-employees-and-their-preferential-treatment/

Excerpt:

There are some other problems with Mr Goldrick’s claim. First, he leaves out the actual headcount numbers behind the claimed 14% decline, namely a decline from 29,556 in 2010 to 25,830 employees in 2017.

Here’s why. According to the 2018 Valuation Report of the State Employees Retirement System (page 3) by actuaries Cavanaugh Macdonald, the overall unionized state workforce was 47,778 on June 30, 2011, just a few months after Malloy first took office and increased to 49,153 on June 30, 2018, six months before Malloy’s retirement.

How does Mr Goldrick turn a headcount increase into a workforce reduction? And why are the Cavanaugh Macdonald numbers about twice as high?

Author(s): Dan Quigley

Publication Date: 26 March 2021

Publication Site: CT Examiner

Part I: Lamont’s Budget: A Game of ‘Caps,’ Except for The Privileged Few

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://ctexaminer.com/2021/03/26/lamonts-budget-a-game-of-caps-except-for-the-privileged-few/

Excerpt:

For over a decade, state employee compensation has exceeded compensation in Connecticut’s private sector by about 40 percent, the biggest gap in the nation. 

The consequence is that the State Employee Retirement Fund (SERF) is drastically underfunded. It is difficult to fund such wildly overgenerous benefits, especially since the state didn’t even start to fund them until years after beginning to award them.

What now is an ongoing gravy train for state employees is ultimately a train wreck for them and the state. There are only three ways to avoid the wreck: (1) massive tax increases and/or service cuts, a disastrous option (2) significant cuts in state employee benefits and/or (3) a federal bailout.

Author(s): Red Jahncke

Publication Date: 26 March 2021

Publication Site: CT Examiner