Rep. Zupkus Takes Vote Against Governor’s Flawed Pension Agreement

HARTFORD- State Representative Lezlye Zupkus voted to reject the pension funding agreement brokered by Governor Dannel Malloy and union leaders on Wednesday.

“The agreement passed by the majority party in the House only puts our unfunded pension liabilities on the backs of our children and grandchildren,” said Rep. Zupkus. “We need to make significant long-term structural changes, and stop kicking the can down the road.”

The Governor’s refinancing scheme will cost less over the first half of the agreement, but in the second half, costs remain significantly higher compared to the state’s current schedule of contributions. In the end, taxpayers will be spending $11 billion more over the life of the agreement.

Republican legislators released two actuarial analyses that provided steps the state of Connecticut can take to reform pension plans. These structural changes in the Reason Foundation report include:

• 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

Pew Charitable Trusts confirmed that if the state found $200 million in savings and sent that money back into the pension fund, it would cut seven years off the length of the refinancing, thereby saving taxpayers billions in future payments.

The scheme only put a dent in the next biennial budget cycle, only reducing the state’s deficit over the next two years from $3.81 billion to $3.47 billion. ###

Later in the day, Lt. Governor Nancy Wyman voted in favor of the pension agreement in the evenly split State Senate that broke a party line 17-17 vote, clearing it for passage in the legislature.