Tag: Connecticut

Taxpayers Are Getting a Bargain with Public Employee Compensation

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://ctexaminer.com/2021/03/26/taxpayers-are-getting-a-bargain-with-public-employee-compensation/

Excerpt:

While offering no source, Jahncke claims that, “for more than a decade, state employee compensation has exceeded compensation in Connecticut’s private sector by about 40 percent, the biggest gap in the nation.”  That unattributed claim likely came from a 2015 report by the Yankee Institute asserting Connecticut public sector workers earn 25-46% more than comparable private sector workers. 

First, consider that the Yankee Institute is not a reputable source of research, but a right-wing, dark money-fueled, propaganda outlet associated with conservative North Carolina billionaire Thomas Roe’s State Policy Network.  Roe’s particular objective, as revealed in Jane Mayer’s book, “Dark Money,” was the destruction of public sector unions. 

In a meticulous analysis for the respected Economic Policy Institute, Monique Morrissey debunked the Yankee Institute report, revealing it was based on a cherry-picked sample of workers, used nonstandard control variables, and inflated the cost of retiree benefits in the public sector, while minimizing their cost in the private sector.  Morrissey concluded that Connecticut public sector workers without college degrees are compensated somewhat more than those in the private sector, while those with college and graduate degrees are compensated somewhat less than in the private sector, even when factoring in more generous public sector benefits.  In short, Morrissey writes, “taxpayers are getting a bargain!”

Author(s): Sean B. Goldrick

Publication Date: 26 March 2021

Publication Site: CT Examiner

Part I: Lamont’s Budget: A Game of ‘Caps,’ Except for The Privileged Few

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://ctexaminer.com/2021/03/26/lamonts-budget-a-game-of-caps-except-for-the-privileged-few/

Excerpt:

For over a decade, state employee compensation has exceeded compensation in Connecticut’s private sector by about 40 percent, the biggest gap in the nation. 

The consequence is that the State Employee Retirement Fund (SERF) is drastically underfunded. It is difficult to fund such wildly overgenerous benefits, especially since the state didn’t even start to fund them until years after beginning to award them.

What now is an ongoing gravy train for state employees is ultimately a train wreck for them and the state. There are only three ways to avoid the wreck: (1) massive tax increases and/or service cuts, a disastrous option (2) significant cuts in state employee benefits and/or (3) a federal bailout.

Author(s): Red Jahncke

Publication Date: 26 March 2021

Publication Site: CT Examiner

Employee Costs and Pensions are driving Connecticut Toward Insolvency

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://ctexaminer.com/2021/03/20/employee-costs-and-pensions-are-driving-connecticut-toward-insolvency/

Excerpt:

Indeed, Jahncke provided public testimony before the Connecticut General Assembly in January 2020 in which he cited the two 50-state studies and then explained why he relied upon multi-state studies rather than single-state studies: “when you are being compared to 50 other states, there is no way that anyone can complain that somebody is jimmying the numbers about Connecticut… these are across-the-board, level playing field [results.]”

Goldrick is just such a complainer, seeking to discredit Yankee’s 2015 study, by stating that “Yankee is not a reputable source of research but rather a right-wing, dark-money fueled, propaganda outlet…”

Then, Goldrick cites “meticulous analysis” supposedly “debunking the Yankee Institute report” – analysis conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, which even The New York Times calls “a left-leaning research group.”

Goldrick’s extreme bias has colored his view of Jahncke’s column and led him to make baseless criticisms while omitting important facts supporting Jahncke’s argument.

Author(s): Edward Dadakis 

Publication Date: 20 March 2021

Publication Site: CT Examiner

Why an epidemiologist thinks Connecticut has its COVID vaccine priorities backwards

Mary Pat Campbell
Why an epidemiologist thinks Connecticut has its COVID vaccine priorities backwards

Excerpt:

But the state has its terms for success defined backward, said Saad Omer, Yale School of Public Health epidemiologist and the director of the Yale Institute for Global Health. “That’s a process metric,” he said. “It’s not an outcome metric.”

How important is speed in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout? To Connecticut, it’s an important enough consideration to partially justify bucking CDC guidance on prioritizing people with co-morbidities, though experts suggest that it is the best way to prevent deaths in younger populations.

But by rolling out vaccine through an age-based process, the state will effectively de-prioritize younger adults with co-morbidities that put them at higher risk of dying from COVID-19, Omer said, because in those younger age groups, those with existing health issues will be part of a much larger crowd of eligible residents.

Author(s): Kasturi Pananjady

Publication Date: 9 March 2021

Publication Site: CT Mirror

Restaurants and other business can go back to full capacity on March 19 as Lamont rolls back COVID restrictions in CT

Mary Pat Campbell
Restaurants and other business can go back to full capacity on March 19 as Lamont rolls back COVID restrictions in CT

Graphic:

Excerpt:

Gov. Ned Lamont said Thursday that Connecticut will eliminate capacity limits on restaurants, houses of worship, retailers and most businesses on March 19 but will retain mandates for social distancing and masks as a precaution against a resurgence of COVID-19.

The rollback comes as about 60% of Connecticut residents 65 and older have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, helping to drive down hospitalizations, new infections and deaths to their lowest point in 2021, though still higher than last summer.

The governor’s announcement was expected. It comes after Texas, Mississippi and three other states took more aggressive steps to end mask mandates and business restrictions, a move denounced as premature by President Joe Biden.

Author(s): MARK PAZNIOKAS, JENNA CARLESSO

Publication Date: 4 March 2021

Publication Site: CT Mirror

Breaking with national recommendations, Lamont says Connecticut’s vaccine rollout will now be prioritized by age

Mary Pat Campbell
Breaking with national recommendations, Lamont says Connecticut’s vaccine rollout will now be prioritized by age

Excerpt:

Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday he is throwing out the state’s current playbook for the COVID-19 vaccine rollout – which had prioritized people with underlying medical conditions and certain types of workers, such as grocery store and agricultural employees – and is shifting to a system that is strictly age-based, with the next round of shots open to people who are 55 to 64 beginning March 1.

The announcement came just as the state was supposed to open up the next round of vaccines to “essential workers” such as teachers and other school staff, grocery store employees and transportation workers, as well as people 16 and older who have underlying health conditions like heart disease and diabetes.

State officials said teachers and others who work in the schools will still be prioritized in the coming weeks, with special clinics devoted just to those employees. Schools staff is expected to become eligible beginning March 1, with a goal of giving all workers who want a shot access to a first dose by late March.

Author(s): JENNA CARLESSO and KEITH M. PHANEUF

Publication Date: 22 February 2021

Publication Site: CT Mirror

Grocery store workers ‘disgusted’ with Lamont’s new COVID-19 vaccine policy

Mary Pat Campbell
Grocery store workers ‘disgusted’ with Lamont’s new COVID-19 vaccine policy

Excerpt:

Lamont abandoned the state’s previous methodology for a vaccination rollout, which had prioritized people with underlying medical conditions and certain types of workers in essential, high-risk jobs.

But the governor’s announcement Monday — which ironically was made the same day the national Food Industry Association celebrated “Supermarket Employee Day” — shifted to a priority system that is strictly age-based, with one exception: school employees and child care providers. The next round of shots will open March 1 to people who are between ages 55 and 64, teachers and others who work in schools, and day care workers.

Besides grocery story workers, the administration also had been considering giving priority in this next phase to transportation workers, as well as people 16 and older who have underlying health conditions like heart disease and diabetes, and teachers and other school staff. Only the last group is being given priority in Lamont’s new plan.

Author(s): Keith Phaneuf

Publication Date: 23 February 2021

Publication Site: CT Mirror

Will Connecticut’s New Vaccine Plan Achieve Its Goals?

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.governing.com/now/Will-Connecticuts-New-Vaccine-Plan-Achieve-Its-Goals.html

Excerpt:

 In announcing a surprising new vaccine distribution plan Monday, Gov. Ned Lamont said Connecticut’s approach was designed with two factors in mind: speed and equity.

“Broadly speaking, these are our goals for vaccination,” Lamont said. “Get as many people vaccinated as we possibly can … and complement that with equity, knowing full that our Black and brown population here in this state and around the country are twice as likely to suffer complications from an infection and half as likely to get vaccinated.”

But experts are divided on whether the new strategy will truly accomplish those goals — and particularly whether it will truly maximize equity. While state and hospital officials say this plan, which establishes priority groups almost strictly by age, will create a smoother, faster rollout, skeptics worry the new eligibility guidelines are not as inclusive as those the Lamont administration jettisoned.

Author(s): EMILY BRINDLEY, HARTFORD COURANT

Publication Date: 25 February 2021

Publication Site: Governing

State closes COVID recovery facilities as nursing home cases continue to fall

Mary Pat Campbell
State closes COVID recovery facilities as nursing home cases continue to fall

Excerpt:

The state is closing the two COVID-19 recovery centers for nursing home residents in Meriden and Torrington because the number of infections has fallen to the point that they are no longer necessary.

“Athena Health Care Systems was pleased to partner with the state of Connecticut to operate COVID recovery centers in Meriden and Torrington to help some of our most vulnerable patients recover as well as keep our nursing home residents safe,” Athena Director of Marketing Timothy Brown said.

“We are pleased to say that we are now able to close both recovery centers. It really is positive news — it means that things are going in the right direction when it comes to this pandemic and that the recovery center model has worked.”

Author(s): DAVE ALTIMARI

Publication Date: 18 February 2021

Publication Site: CT Mirror