Tag: Yankee Institute

Government Unions Target Fiscal Sanity in Connecticut

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/02/government-unions-target-fiscal-sanity-in-connecticut/

Excerpt:

Connecticut taxpayers, saddled with a pension system for state workers and teachers marked by decades of underfunding, glimpsed a ray of hope in 2017 when legislators embarked on a path toward accountability and fiscal discipline by enacting “fiscal guardrails.”

Now, state unions under the umbrella of the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition are clamoring for the removal of the fiscal guardrails that were constructed to prevent the same unions from driving taxpayers over the cliff. The staggering state debt of more than $80 billion, including unfunded pension debt from the state workers’ and teachers’ pension funds, bonded debt, and health-care liabilities, was the result of years of irresponsibility and political horse-trading with state unions that were all too eager to negotiate benefits without a sustainable funding plan.

…..

Connecticut has long been a high-income per capita state and also imposes one of the country’s most burdensome tax systems. Yet it still managed to accumulate the highest state debt per resident. The 2017 bipartisan fiscal guardrails constituted a recognition that the previous decade’s cycle of budget shortfalls, followed by significant tax increases, was simply unsustainable.

The guardrails were codified in 2023, and the general assembly unanimously voted to extend them for another five years. Their very effectiveness in slowing spending growth has made them susceptible to attack from state unions.

Author(s): Frank Ricci and Bryce Chinault

Publication Date: 13 Feb 2024

Publication Site: National Review Online

Connecticut starts new year with better pension funding

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://insideinvestigator.org/connecticut-starts-new-year-with-better-pension-funding/

Excerpt:

According to the latest valuations, Connecticut’s State Employees Retirement System (SERS) increased its overall funded ratio from 48.5 percent in 2022 to 52 percent in 2023, and the Teachers Retirement System (TRS) increased its funded ratio from 57 percent to 59.8 percent.

Although neither is considered healthy in terms of pension funding, it does mark a turnaround following years of increasing unfunded liabilities and, therefore, increasing annual payments toward the debt, increased taxes and contract negotiations with state employees that increased their contributions and lowered benefits to make up the difference.

Former Gov. Dannel Malloy had stated that Connecticut’s tax increases in 2011 and 2015 went entirely to pay for the escalating cost of state employee and teacher pensions.

While the year-over-year change seems somewhat small, the change in funding ratio over the past eight years is much more substantial. In 2016, SERS was only 36 percent funded with $20.3 billion in unfunded liabilities. While SERS continues to have roughly $20 billion in unfunded liabilities, its assets have grown by $10 billion during that period, significantly increasing the funding ratio.

Meanwhile, the unfunded liability for TRS has increased by $3.3 billion over that same time frame, but assets increased by nearly $8 billion, increasing the funded ratio from 56 percent to nearly 60 percent. The total unfunded debt for TRS currently stands at $16.4 billion.

Author(s): Marc E. Fitch

Publication Date: 2 Jan 2024

Publication Site: CT Inside Investigator

Taxpayers Are Getting a Bargain with Public Employee Compensation

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://ctexaminer.com/2021/03/26/taxpayers-are-getting-a-bargain-with-public-employee-compensation/

Excerpt:

While offering no source, Jahncke claims that, “for more than a decade, state employee compensation has exceeded compensation in Connecticut’s private sector by about 40 percent, the biggest gap in the nation.”  That unattributed claim likely came from a 2015 report by the Yankee Institute asserting Connecticut public sector workers earn 25-46% more than comparable private sector workers. 

First, consider that the Yankee Institute is not a reputable source of research, but a right-wing, dark money-fueled, propaganda outlet associated with conservative North Carolina billionaire Thomas Roe’s State Policy Network.  Roe’s particular objective, as revealed in Jane Mayer’s book, “Dark Money,” was the destruction of public sector unions. 

In a meticulous analysis for the respected Economic Policy Institute, Monique Morrissey debunked the Yankee Institute report, revealing it was based on a cherry-picked sample of workers, used nonstandard control variables, and inflated the cost of retiree benefits in the public sector, while minimizing their cost in the private sector.  Morrissey concluded that Connecticut public sector workers without college degrees are compensated somewhat more than those in the private sector, while those with college and graduate degrees are compensated somewhat less than in the private sector, even when factoring in more generous public sector benefits.  In short, Morrissey writes, “taxpayers are getting a bargain!”

Author(s): Sean B. Goldrick

Publication Date: 26 March 2021

Publication Site: CT Examiner

Employee Costs and Pensions are driving Connecticut Toward Insolvency

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://ctexaminer.com/2021/03/20/employee-costs-and-pensions-are-driving-connecticut-toward-insolvency/

Excerpt:

Indeed, Jahncke provided public testimony before the Connecticut General Assembly in January 2020 in which he cited the two 50-state studies and then explained why he relied upon multi-state studies rather than single-state studies: “when you are being compared to 50 other states, there is no way that anyone can complain that somebody is jimmying the numbers about Connecticut… these are across-the-board, level playing field [results.]”

Goldrick is just such a complainer, seeking to discredit Yankee’s 2015 study, by stating that “Yankee is not a reputable source of research but rather a right-wing, dark-money fueled, propaganda outlet…”

Then, Goldrick cites “meticulous analysis” supposedly “debunking the Yankee Institute report” – analysis conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, which even The New York Times calls “a left-leaning research group.”

Goldrick’s extreme bias has colored his view of Jahncke’s column and led him to make baseless criticisms while omitting important facts supporting Jahncke’s argument.

Author(s): Edward Dadakis 

Publication Date: 20 March 2021

Publication Site: CT Examiner

Governor Lamont Agrees to New, Regressive Tax

Mary Pat Campbell
Governor Lamont Agrees to New, Regressive Tax

Excerpt:

Today, Governor Lamont joined governors in the Northeast region in signing onto the newly-released Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI) Memorandum of Understanding. The initiative would result in $388.6 million per year in increased gasoline costs across the state. 

Connecticut is already struggling amid an economic downturn. Imposing a significant tax increase simply chops any chance of recovery off at the knees and harms working families with a regressive tax at a time when few can afford it. 

Author(s): Isabel Blank

Publication Date: 21 December 2020

Publication Site: Yankee Institute