John Piscopo

The state budget process is long underway and its time Connecticut begin to take a hard look at eliminating all the waste and compel government to live within its means.

One of the most over-the-top practices is the long held tradition of giving out “longevity pay” to state employees.

Longevity pay is a set of payments that are made to state workers after they have been employed by the state for certain thresholds of time. They begin at ten years and increase every five years thereafter. The payments are above their normal state salary, and are made in two lump sums every April and October.

About 30,000 of these state employees currently receive longevity pay, costing the state nearly $20 million a year. This practice has been in place since the 1960’s, and is a prime example of how the old way of doing state business simply won’t cut it.
While the argument in favor of these longevity payments has been that they help retain the best and most qualified people in important state positions, in these tough times is it good public times to throw extra money at state employees? At a time when the state is facing a budget deficit of almost $7 Billion and Connecticut families are coping with steady 9% unemployment, many of them facing foreclosure and other hardships, government needs to tighten its belt before asking heavily taxed residents to contribute more.

These longevity payments have been awarded to both unionized and non-union state employees. The unionized employee payments are capped at $1,000, but the non-union ones are not so limited. There are about 3,500 non-union employees who receive these payments.

The legislature should immediately address those non-union longevity payments and eliminate them. Both sides of the aisle have indicated that this can be accomplished this year, but it remains a very small part of the state budget pie. Realistically, the only way union employees can be required to surrender their longevity pay is through negotiations with Governor Malloy.

Governor Dannel P. Malloy budget is built on the premise that he can achieve $2 billion in concessions from the state employee unions. One would think the removal of these gratuitous longevity payments along with their significant savings would be a key feature of any union giveback agreement.
Connecticut’s taxpayers are already the highest taxed in the nation. This is a $20 million so-called “endurance bonus” we could all do well without. If there really is to be “shared sacrifice” this is a great place to start.