"The state has to live within its means just like the families and businesses we serve and represent," Lamont said in a statement when the deal was announced. 2023 January COLA Increase Approved - portal.ct.gov See 90% of our revenue is contributed. While annual retirements usually range from 2,000 to 2,500 per calendar year, more than 3,400 state employees have either retired or filed their written intentions to do so between January and March 31, 2022, alone. Connecticut is facing pressure from the private sector, municipalities and other states for its workers, Osten said, adding that the pandemic has made many state jobs less attractive. So why might Lamont do something so patently unfair and so politically toxic as awarding pay raises to already overcompensated state workers while most Connecticut citizens and voters have been and still are hurting very badly? Lawmaker Proposes Pay Raises | CT News Junkie The [nonprofit] industry pegs the inflationary loss its taking on these payments at $460 million per year, according to the CT Mirror. Ned Lamont speaks at a news conference at Connecticuts Beardsley Zoo, in Bridgeport, Conn. March 29, 2021. The proposed contract is generous. The BCG study was supposed to facilitate a third approach. Raising minimum salary levels between 10% to 25% will give many frontline HHSC employees a reprieve from dire financial straits caused by the Texas Legislature's failure to provide across-the-board pay raises to state . 0:36. Ned Lamont believes it will keep critical state workers on the job. 2K views, 27 likes, 7 loves, 18 comments, 0 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Dbstvstlucia: DBS MORNING SHOW & OBITUARIES 25TH APRIL 2023 APRIL 2023 No. Geballe said the new administrations job is to support, broaden and accelerate those changes. Based on the statutes governing Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) for CTRB members, the Connecticut Teachers' Retirement Board will be granting COLA as follows. They are our people, who we count on each day to make us safe, she said. The year over year increases drive up the amount paid out by Connecticuts severely underfunded State Employee Retirement System. The Charter provides commonsense reforms to make Connecticuts government work for its residents. This deal was billed as a retention effort, said Rep. Laura Devlin, R- Fairfield, who is campaigning for lieutenant governor as the running mate of GOP gubernatorial contender Bob Stefanowski of Madison. In a letter to his co-chair in management, Rinker wrote: I predict that some day some one will want to change state employment and the report you signed off on wil be the basis for that change., Change is coming for Connecticut state employees, 2023 Hearst Media Services Connecticut, LLC, Police: Pedestrian killed in crash on Route 9 in Middletown, Police: Horses starved, kept in unsanitary conditions on CT farm, Middletown to restart Bird e-bike, scooter microtransit program, Middletown residents cheer decision to fully replace Pameacha dam, Cromwell man sentenced for carjacking date at knifepoint in 2020, Police: Suspect in Cromwell hotel robbery threatened to use a gun, Middletown Mayor Ben Florsheim begins campaign for 2nd term, 2 Middletown youths charged in connection with school fight, Middlesex County Historical Society to receive 3 historic objects, East Hampton fire department marks 100 years with Bevin cowbells, Police: Pedestrian struck, killed in Route 9 crash in Middletown, New Britain bar's liquor license suspended after serving alcohol to minors, officials say, Police: Horses starved and kept in unsanitary conditions on Middletown property, Police: Threat made to Middletown schools deemed not credible, CT records first cases of new COVID variant Arcturus, transmission remains low, Police: Mystic woman killed, mother and daughter seriously hurt in Gold Star Highway crash in Groton. Keith has spent most of his 31 years as a reporter specializing in state government finances, analyzing such topics as income tax equity, waste in government and the complex funding systems behind Connecticuts transportation and social services networks. Part of the 2017 SEBAC Agreement between the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition and Gov. font size, Human Resources Business Rules and Regulations. The Democrat-controlled House voted 96-52 to approve the contracts, after a four-hour debate during which Republicans insisted the compensation far outstrips what private-sector workers are receiving, or what taxpayers can afford. Watch Live at 7:00 PM: The U.S. and the Holocaust, a film by Ken Burns | Screening & Panel Discussion . This proposed contract is a raw deal for the working people of this state, said Sen. Ryan Fazio, R-Greenwich, who noted state workers, on average, would receive more than $10,000 in total added compensation over four years. Ned Lamont's administration and already ratified by the 35 . Let us be clear. I would say that largely we havent seen that partnership happen, but we continue to have the door wide open, Glidden said. SEBAC employees who are employed before March . Because of the high rate of inflation, the July COLAs are calculated based on 60 percent of CPI-W, which translates to a bump of 3.6 percent as of July 2021. Your pension is subject to an annual Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA). Senate approves raises, bonuses for Conn. state workers - WTNH.com Ned Lamont in Darien earlier this month. "But this is also a unique situation where state employees did extraordinary work during a paradigm-altering pandemic, inflation has concurrently increased, and the state workforce could potentially undergo significant changes due to retirements and uncompetitive wages.". If inflation were 1% Then the absolute COLA would be low, but the burden on the state budget and taxpayers would be growing, because inflation under 2% leads to a real pension burden increase. Some changes already have come, pushed by Nicholas Hermes, a West Point grad who is the statewide human resources director at DAS, hired in 2016. Negotiators will meet again to determine raises after the time period. Administrations come and go, taking with them their priorities. Ned Lamont administration to attract more people to stay and move into these jobs, and to make their salaries more in line with unionized workers. More than 30 state employee bargaining units have ratified contracts that would provide more than 40,000 workers with $3,500 in bonuses by July, along with three years of raises, the State. The increases, part of a four-year package negotiated by Gov. building a betterand more civilConnecticut to live, work, and play. Ned Lamont is negotiating a new wage contract with the State Employees Bargaining Alliance Coalition. Opinion: Gov. The raises will cost the state $13.3 million and the bonuses $2 million. The State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition represents 35 different bargaining units and more than 40,000 state employees. It is tone deaf and appears to even regular folks like me to be pandering to special interests in an election year.". Geballes office is open to a conference room, where an erasable white board hangs on the wall, running the length of the room. Connecticut State Employees Retirement System Tier I Benefit Calculation People know not to bring paper in here, said Josh Geballe, a former IBM executive and tech entrepreneur. Connecticut Minimum Wage Set to Increase to $15 There will be no guaranteed minimum for those who retire after July 1, 2022, and their first potential COLA would come in 30 months, not 12. The 2022 State Holiday and Check Dates calendar for State Employees. The raises provided to state managers mirror what the state provided to union workers over the past four years under the 2017 agreement with the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition. Gusty winds add new twist to brush fires in CT, officials say, What's next for the nuclear waste that's been in CT for 50 years, Building emissions are a key climate change contributor in CT, After decades in unmarked grave, CT homicide victim put to rest. Thats when more stringent limits on state retirement benefits, negotiated as part of a 2017 concessions deal with unions, take effect. The House, where Democrats also hold a majority, approved the package 96-52 on Thursday. Hartford lawyer Daniel Livingston, chief negotiator for the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition, or SEBAC, estimated that going with one-time bonuses and a smaller 2.5% annual cost-of-living raise saves the state about $150 million over the next decade. The long session, as non-election years are called in Hartford, will be centered around the biennial budget. Get CT Mirror briefings with enterprise reporting, investigations and more in your inbox daily. The alternatives are suboptimal. The House of Representatives approved a four-year package of raises Thursday that includes $3,500 in bonuses later this spring and summer for about 46,000 unionized state employees. Marc can be reached at, Connecticut saw a 1,600 decrease in nonfarm industry positions in December, while November private sector gains (3,300) were revised down [], Eviction cases in Hartford and Bridgeport have remained far below historical averages since the Supreme Court overturned the federal eviction []. Thirty percent intend to leave the state upon retirement. They also cover the next two fiscal years and potentially 2024-25 as well. Republicans argue the SEBAC package will lead to big deficits in a few years -- and tax hikes. Efficiency is easier in concept than in actual practice. Not the fact that Connecticut has had a big contraction in its workforce during the pandemic of about 6 percent and a top 10 unemployment rate, currently exceeding 7 percent, versus a national average nearing 5 percent. By 2020, the state paid $2.2 billion to 55,348 retirees. Management-level CT state employees to get 7.5 percent raises October 25, 2021 @ When that expires in 2024, the states fiscal position could turn, some lawmakers argue, particularly if the national inflation rate which topped 7% last year and exceeds 8% early in 2022 remains high. functions now spread across agencies, just as Raymond recently struck a five-year deal with Microsoft that replaces a dozen separate agency agreements. Likely, the governors spinmeisters will follow the lead of union leaders in referring to all state employees as frontline workers, although many agencies were closed to the public during most of the pandemic. Were not attracting innovation and industry. Both are signs of things to come in state government or more precisely, things to disappear. ThanKs Vin, Lyle Scruggs Connecticut Public Radio | The agreements, which unions ratified earlier this spring, are retroactive to the start of this fiscal year, which began last July 1. Its a matter of whether we can afford it.. Greenwich resident Red Jahncke is president of The Townsend Group International, a business consultancy in Connecticut, and a freelance columnist published in national and Connecticut newspapers. Dannel Malloy included a provision to change the COLAs for state employees who retire after July 1, 2022. As a State of Connecticut employee you may be entitled to a host of benefits that are not only attractive, but also may be portable should your career . If youre going to get a bonus, youve got to stick around with us for a while, said Rep. Jay Case, R-Winsted. Photos: Iconic Landmarks To Visit Across CT. And Lamont reported this week that the current fiscal years budget is projected to close on June 30 with an unprecedented $3.95 billion surplus, equal to nearly 20% of entire General Fund. The study also found that Connecticut state employees are compensated 33 percent more than a similar private sector employee when pension, healthcare and other fringe benefits are taken into account. In a bill drafted . in its annual Fiscal Accountability Report. State finances also are being supported this fiscal year and next by about $3 billion in emergency federal pandemic relief. Josh Geballe, the states chief operating officer and commissioner of the Department of Administrative Services, said state agency heads have found it difficult to promote top performers in their departments because the employees would either have to take a pay cut or worry they wont be afforded the same prospective increases as those in bargaining units. We hope their support inspires you to donate so that we can continue telling stories that inform, educate, and inspire you and your neighbors. A third of the state workforce is going to retire in the next three years, Geballe said. Geballe is no stranger to bureaucracies and the opportunities, challenges and necessities of wrenching change: He spent 11 years at IBM, which employs 350,000 people worldwide and preaches that the world is in the midst of a fourth industrial revolution, a convergence of new technologies powered by cloud computing. The Florida House and Senate are working on a budget whose bottom line for state workers is a $224 million pay raise - that's about $44 a week, ($2,300 annually) for the 97,000 employees in the . Does not automatically renew. Lamont will give big fat raises to state workers, Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media, 2023 Hearst Media Services Connecticut, LLC, Police: Two men arrested after pulling gun at Stratford gym, Police: Homeowner scares off burglar in Trumbull, Milford robotics team wins division at international contest, Power restored after 1,500 outages reported in Fairfield, Police: CT woman lied about fake cops robbing her of $15K, M&T Bank backs push to diversify Bridgeport's nonprofit boards, Only a third of young Bridgeport students reading at grade level, Bridgeport's building chief: Remington was 'imminent danger', Bridgeport schools officials plead for added funding, CT doctor gets 4 years for fraud, illegally recruiting patients, the median American household saw its income fall 2.9 percent last year, CT records first cases of new COVID variant Arcturus, transmission remains low, 5 cute towns, cities and neighborhoods in CT to visit for a spring day, Connecticut women charged with stealing nearly $17K from public assistance programs, ESPN's Dan Orlovsky wears blazer lined with UConn logo in honor of men's basketball title: 'Go puppies', Former UConn women's basketball star Lou Lopez Snchal sidelined to start Dallas Wings training camp, Power restored to 1,500 customers in Fairfield after tree falls on utility lines. Examples abound. One lump sum payment retroactive to 2021 with full-time employees receiving $2,500 and part-time employees receiving a prorated amount $1,000 lump sum payment effective fiscal 2023 and prorated for part-time employees The vote was almost entirely along party lines, with all Democrats casting ballots for the deal and only one Republican, Thomas Delnicki of South Windsor, supporting it. In 2015, Connecticut paid $1.7 billion to 49,111 retirees, according to the Comptroller's Open Pension website. House passes raises, bonuses for CT state employees By Keith M. Phaneuf / CTMirror.org Published April 21, 2022 at 5:22 PM EDT The House of Representatives approved a four-year package of raises Thursday that includes $3,500 in bonuses later this spring and summer for about 46,000 unionized state employees. Those who challenge government actions for the right reasons could be forever barred from political office unjustly by this law. 4:04 pm. Good question Hope I cant find the answer either. Attracting people to fill managerial roles will become even more important as the state prepares for a coming wave of employees retiring next year. Weve seen clerical workers go from a high of almost 9,000 to 4,000.. They also cover the next two fiscal years and potentially 2024-25 as well. Republican House Leader Vincent Candelora of Branford, in a statement following Thursdays announcement questioned how the raises will affect not only current contract talks with union negotiators for rank-and-file workers who want more pay, but also the work of a new task force charged with studying this issue and reporting back to the legislature., Candelora attributed the structural gulf between non-union managers and unionized employees to a vicious circle that's fueled by people at the Capitol whose baseline position is to give state employee unions everything they want.. The virtually inevitable pay hikes and favorable benefit modifications will then be classified as hardship pay to reward for employees for their phantom frontline service.. The managers who will receive the raises include division heads at state agencies, as well as commissioners and deputy commissioners. The $3 billion in budget reserves and $4 billion in projected surplus pales in comparison with the $95.4 billion in long-term unfunded obligations Connecticut has, ODea said, referring to the combined pension, retirement health care and bonded debt the Lamont administration listed last November in its annual Fiscal Accountability Report. What tax reform proposals will there be? Dannel P. Malloy takes effect. Thats because state governments coffers are flush with cash as never before. For retirements prior to June 30, 2022, these cumulative raises will be paid each year on either January 1st or July 1st depending on your date of retirement (DOR). After leaving IBM, he became chief executive officer of Core Informatics, a software startup that Hartford Business Journal included in its 2017 list of best places to work in Connecticut. Thats a big risk, but its also an amazing opportunity to reinvent how we do things, to bring in technology to automate a lot of the manual processes that can be more efficiently done by software today.. The plan, negotiated by Gov. Ned Lamont contracted with the Boston Consulting Group for a report of how to increase state government efficiency. Prior to joining CT Mirror Keith was State Capitol bureau chief for The Journal Inquirer of Manchester, a reporter for the Day of New London, and a former contributing writer to The New York Times. The deal works out to about $40,000 in raises per state employee over four years, Fazio said, which works out to about $1,300 per Connecticut household. The agreement includes: 2.5% general wage increases in each of fiscal years 2022, 2023, and 2024. By, Corporate Support: Advertising & Sponsorship, See stories by Keith M. Phaneuf / CTMirror.org, Love Wins at WCSU benefit concert for saxophonists daughter lost at Sandy Hook, Week in CT News: Se'Cret Pierce killing, what's in our water, Zero interest loans are back for some home buyers in Connecticut, Erica Lafferty has been fighting since Sandy Hook. He has been the state finances reporter at CT Mirror since it launched in 2010. Finance panel: Next CT tax fairness study must focus on inequality, CT budget battle heats up as Lamont offers rosy financial picture, State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition, Proudly powered by Newspack by Automattic. Anniversary Date (AI Date) Change for Certain Non-Represented Employees (E-Item 2271), Changes Anniversary Date from July 1 to January 1 for employees assigned to the MP, MD, SE, DM, CJ & VR, Labor units 02 & 03 pay plans, DAS General Letter 193 - Anniversary Date (AI Date) for Classes Covered by Collective Bargaining, Procedures for establishing anniversary dates for employees covered by collective bargaining agreements, Salary Increase - Cost of Living (COLA) for Certain Non-Represented Employees (E-Item 2090), Authorizes 3% Cost of Living Increase effective July 1, 2014 to employees assigned to the MP, MD, SE, DM, CJ-EX & VR, Labor units 02 & 03 pay plans, Salary Increase - Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) & Annual Increase (AI) for Associate Attorney Generals (E-Item 2002), Authorizes a 3% Cost of Living Increase and a 3% Annual Increment not to exceed the maximum of the salary grade for Associate Attorney Generals, Salary Increase - Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for Certain Non-Represented Employees (E-Item 1935), Authorizes 3% Cost of Living Increase effective July 1, 2013 to employees assigned to the MP, MD, SE, DM, CJ-EX & VR, Labor units 02 & 03 pay plans, Salary Increase - Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for Certain Non-Represented Employees (E-Item 1942), Authorizes 3% Cost of Living Increase effective July 1, 2013 to specific titles assigned to the EX pay plan, Salary Increase - Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for Certain Non-Represented Employees (E-Item 2091), Authorizes 3% Cost of Living Increase effective July 1, 2014 for certain employees assigned to the EX pay plan, Salary Increase and Pay Plan Adjustments for Certain Non-Represented Employees (E-Item 2147), Authorizes a Certain Percentage salary adjustment based upon most recent pay increase for certain employees assigned to the EX pay plan, adjusts the EX pay plan and effective January 1, 2016 pay increases for EX mirrors MP, Salary Increase Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for Certain Non Represented Employees E Item 2664, Authorizes 3.5% Cost of Living Increase effective July 1, 2019 to employees assigned to the MP, MD, SE, DM, CJ-EX & VR, Labor units 02 & 03 pay plans, Salary Increase Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for Certain Non-Represented Employees (E-Item 2665), Authorizes 3.5% Cost of Living Adjustment to certain employees who are assigned to Bargaining Unit 01 effective July 1, 2019, Geballe said the administration has a vision of where to go with technology, primarily by offering consumers and businesses a digital portal to state government. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 2015 and 2020 there was only one year 2018 during which the CPI-W for July was above 2 percent. The contracts allow workers to accept the $2,500 extra payment and still retire before July 1. The raises do not apply to employees in the legislative and judicial branches or higher education. community-supported public media service, Connecticut Public has relied on donor support for more than 50 years. This proposed contract is a raw deal for the working people of this state, said Sen. Ryan Fazio, R-Greenwich, who noted state workers, on average, would receive more than $10,000 in total added compensation over four years.
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