February 2, 2017

Rep. Dauphinais Urges Legislature to Pair Pension Refinancing with Reform

This article was archived from the previous WordPress site. Formatting and media should be close, but may not match the original post perfectly.

HARTFORD – State Representative Anne Dauphinais (R-44) along other House Republicans today urged fellow lawmakers to reject Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s pension funding agreement and work together to assess alternative methods to address the state’s growing pension system problems.

Dauphinais and other lawmakers released data obtained from two actuarial analyses that show how additional steps can rein in the state’s unfunded pension liabilities. Both reports show how pairing pension finance changes with modifications to state employee benefits could increase the solvency of the state pension plan.

“Unfortunately the governor’s deal does nothing to fix the structural problems with our pension system. It uses accounting gimmicks to cover up our financial problems and immorally pushes the burden of debt onto future generations, children who aren’t even born yet,” Rep. Dauphinais said.

“Let’s be clear, the current financial problems we are all facing are well over three decades in the making. Decades of squandering revenue surpluses and not paying our bills as promised, led by a Democrat controlled General Assembly who made promises to citizens and employees they did not keep,” she continued.

Information attached includes:

An analysis from actuaries at the Reason Foundation modeling changes to SERS that could be added to the SEBAC agreement funding policy changes including: adopting a defined contribution retirement plan for new hires , increasing employee pension contributions to 4%, and capping cost of living adjustments to 2% – which would save the state approximately $100 million annually.

An analysis from actuaries at the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts showing the reduction in unfunded liability that could be achieved with $200 million in state employee pension benefit changes. Pew confirmed that if the $200 million is sent back into the fund it would cut 7 years off the length of the refinancing, thereby saving taxpayers billions in future payments.

###

State Representative Anne Dauphinais, the Ranking House Republican Member on the Committee on Children, today issued the following statement on DCF Performance Audit Findings

“The findings of the audit offer a sobering snapshot of the immense challenges facing DCF—alongside some deeply troubling failures in both performance and procedure. Some of these shortcomings, like those involving the STAR group home, were already known. But that makes them no less unacceptable. Children in these situations are among the most vulnerable in […]

June 26, 2025

Rep. Dauphinais Responds to New Trust Act Law

During Wednesday’s House Session, we spent hours debating H.B. 7259, AN ACT CONCERNING REVISIONS TO VARIOUS STATUTES CONCERNING CRIMINAL JUSTICE, which includes the Trust Act. What’s new, you ask? Prohibits police from communicating with ICE in many cases involving illegal aliens arrested for criminal activity. Expands restrictions to members of the state’s court system and […]

May 22, 2025