Posted on July 26, 2017
New Canaan’s GOP delegation of State Representatives Tom O’Dea (R-125) and Fred Wilms (R-142) voiced their dismay at Monday’s House approval of the state employees’ union concession package due to its insufficient savings and structural changes and its extension of the current union contract until 2027.
The concession package, negotiated by Governor Malloy and union leaders, was ratified by state employees earlier this month and now is tentatively scheduled to go before the Senate on July 31. Analysts have predicted the plan could save approximately $1.5 billion over the next two years by increasing pension contributions, creating a hybrid/defined contribution plan for future state employees, increasing healthcare co-payments, and realizing other labor savings. The deal also restricts the state’s ability to lay off workers until 2021.
House Republicans, including O’Dea and Wilms, highlighted some of the structural change in the concession package as “steps in the right direction” that they supported, but denied the notion that the deal solved Connecticut’s fiscal crisis and indicated it could lead to funding cuts and tax increases in the future.
“This agreement was rushed on us by the majority before a sufficient level of independent analysis of the cost to taxpayers was done, all the while we remain without a budget for the state of Connecticut,” said Rep. O’Dea. “Mostly, this agreement gives more than it takes, guaranteeing against layoffs, and preserving benefits that remain among the most opulent in the country – far out of line with what is typical of the private sector. It fails to go far enough to solve our state budget deficit, and I suspect we will be right where we were again in very short order.”