Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations

With Budget Season upon us and taxpayers facing a $1.3 billion State budget deficit,� Governor Rell and all State legislators would be wise to freeze the salaries of all state employees, to include their own.� They should also extend the legal authority to freeze salaries to municipal leaders, while instituting changes to the state�s Binding Arbitration laws.�

Understanding that leadership must come from the top, Governor Rell, in her continued effort to bring Connecticut out from under the cloud of corruption, should concurrently dismiss many Rowland political appointees making unjustifiable salaries who will soon be ready to retire at the taxpayer�s expense.� These durational hires, some of whom were moved into permanent positions, include Rowland loyalists Kathleen Mengacci, paid $85,000 a year as assistant to the director of the Office of Workforce Competitiveness; Regina Gianni, paid $52,000 who answers phones for the Department of Motor Vehicles; Michael Doyle, paid $60,000 as an executive assistant in the Department of Correction; and Martin Zito, paid $104,000 as chief of staff in the Department of Mental Retardation.

Next, Governor Rell would do well to purge the State�s quasi-public agencies of appointees who are managing these agencies as political fiefdoms.� CRRA�s loss of $220 million is history.� What�s new is the revelation of the Lottery Corp�s double-digit "incentive payments" totaling $160,926 to 17 lottery officials.��

This should then be followed by Governor Rell�s termination of gubernatorial appointees� to the MDC Commission who supported William DiBella�s hand picked political operative to a $110,000 MDC job without posting the job, while creating for his friend an assistant position at over $70,000.�� The Governor and all State elected officials should� join former Democrat State Chairman George Jepsen�s call for DiBella to step down from his position as Chairman of the MDC to avoid, as Jepsen stated,� �the appearance of impropriety, after allegations by federal authorities that he accepted nearly $375,000 in a deal involving now imprisoned former Treasurer Paul Sylvester.��

And, finally, Governor Rell and all State legislators must fix the widening divide they have created between �at-will� private sector employees and government sector union employees.�� We have a two tiered employment system� in Connecticut between the haves and have nots.� Government sector unions who have the elected officials wrapped around their finger, and as such, they refuse to change state Binding Arbitration laws� versus �at-will� employees who are trying to pry the fingers of their elected officials from their wallets as more of their tax dollars are channeled to fund union contracts, which account for 70% to 90% of local budgets.�

The majority of Connecticut residents work in the private sector under �at-will� conditions wherein they can be terminated at any time, for any legal reason, or for no reason at all by their employer.�� They work in a state of flux knowing that their employer on any given day can demand that they pay a greater share of their health care premium, take on a greater workload, receive a minimal salary increase, no salary increase or have their pay cut.�� There will be no debate, no bargaining, no arbitration, and no elected official waiting to defend them.�� The words �out-sourcing� and �visas� have become a part of the Connecticut worker�s vocabulary as the agenda of many corporations is to put their stock at the top of the portfolios of Wall Street analysts.��

The �at-will� employee is an unprotected class.� They are losing their jobs, their homes and their health insurance.�� They are being forced into jobs which are below their educational and skill levels and at salaries which are a fraction of what their previous jobs paid.��

Yet, the American dream is alive and well for those whom the �at-will� employee is forced by elected government officials to financially support.� They are the state and municipal government workers.� In contrast to the �at�will� employee, government workers don�t have to accept what their employer tells them.� Taxpayers are their employer.� Whether it is working conditions or salary, healthcare or pension issues they exercise their State given right to force negotiations and push their agendas, behind closed doors, under state Binding Arbitration laws, which leave taxpayers powerless.�� Unions vote to accept or reject their contracts.� Taxpayers do not.� Instead, taxpayers are simply presented with the bill for these lucrative union contracts, through their property taxes.�

State elected officials like Edith Prague, Chairperson of the State�s Labor Committee, and her Democrat colleagues, work to protect the interests of� government employees to the detriment of �at-will� private sector employees.�� She opposes any changes to State Binding Arbitration Laws.� She refuses to support proposed changes being brought before the full General Assembly.��

Throughout the 169 Connecticut towns, 70% to 90% of municipal budgets pay for salaries, health care and pensions of municipal employees.�� In several Connecticut towns, pensions for personnel are determined by what they earned in three of their final five years on the job, with overtime factored in.�� In Hartford, a wage earner took home $131,706.46, or $71,533.14 more than his base salary.�� In East Hartford, police can elected a program which will allow them to work 5 years prior to full retirement.� While collecting their pay, 96% of their pension is deposited into a savings account up to 5 years.� With pensions at $50,000 and greater, they can leave the town with $250,000 and more if they elect this program, and then begin collecting their full pension.�

The Wall Street Journal on January 13 in their article �No Teacher Left Behind�� labeled the Teachers Union as the most powerful in the country contending they promote their own interests to the detriment of public school systems.�� Yet, our State and local elected officials continue to oppose any form of competition in education to include vouchers.��

Volunteerism, once a noble cause, has been trampled on by union leadership, whose power�� is cemented in State law.� Firefighters working in towns and cities throughout the State were forced to incorporate a provision in their labor contracts which prohibited them from volunteering for fire fighter duties in the towns in which they lived.��

State taxpayers pay approximately $300 million for State employee healthcare and $155 million for State retiree healthcare.�� Some state and local retirees pay little to nothing.� Locally, property taxes are increasing to pay the� 85% to 95% of healthcare premiums for municipal employees.� This equates to taxpayers paying between�� $12,750 to $14,250� for each union member�s family healthcare policy .� But that wasn�t enough for the unions.� They wanted more and went to court to get it.� They sued the taxpayers to take possession of the $100 million in stock received by the State from the Anthem demutualization, as well as the Anthem stock distributed to individual towns.�� Many �at-will� workers in Connecticut who pay taxes have no health insurance.��

In summary, the increasing divide between �at-will� employees in the private sector versus government sector unions must be immediately addressed through changes to State Binding Arbitration Laws.� The cost of union contracts has helped Connecticut� to attain our status as the highest taxed state per capita in the nation, with the highest bonded debt.� Out debt is $12.4 billion, which taxpayers pay $1.3 million in interest annually.�

State costs can be brought under control.� If our elected officials don�t have the wisdom or courage to do so, then we, the taxpayers, are at fault for electing them.��