1199 Members,
Many of you have seen news reports indicating that the recently passed state budget included $450 million in savings related to state employees, so we thought it was important to reiterate that these reported savings are NOT the result of labor concessions.
Neither 1199 nor SEBAC will be part of negotiating more sacrifices for state employees, who have already given so much for the people we serve. Our 2017 agreement is saving Connecticut taxpayers $25 billion over the next 20 years, helping to close the chronic budget deficits that imperil vital public services.
We are continuing to work with the Lamont Administration on “win-win” solutions for achieving efficiency that will benefit everyone. The $450 million savings referenced in media reports refer to the following:
- Stabilizing state pensions and ensuring obligations to current and future retirees are fully funded through the re-amortization of the state pension funds, adjusting the schedule to pay off Connecticut’s pension debt. You may recall that we entered into such a re-amortization agreement back in 2016. At that time, we had advocated for re-amortizing the entire pension debt but the Malloy administration was only willing to re-amortize about two-thirds of the debt. When Governor Lamont was elected, we raised the issue again and the governor expressed interest and has included assumed savings from such an agreement even though it has yet to be negotiated. We expect that agreement to be negotiated in the coming months and, just as in 2016, it will not be subject to a member ratification vote because it will not include concessions on our part. It would truly be a win-win.
- Keeping healthcare costs low by making proactive changes to better manage the state healthcare plan, including prescription drug pricing which Comptroller Kevin Lembo has projected will produce significant savings.
None of the proposed savings would result in changes to the pension and health insurance benefits of state employees or retirees.
