Tag: Red Jahncke

Red Jahncke: A study’s error distorts debate on state pensions

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.journalinquirer.com/opinion/other_commentary/red-jahncke-a-study-s-error-distorts-debate-on-state-pensions/article_498958aa-9872-11eb-bc83-837e67f2c17c.html

Excerpt:

Because Connecticut employees contributed so little to their own pensions, the cost to the state was actually higher than the average cost of pension benefits in the 50 states,  Here are the numbers from the center’s study (page 17). In 2014, Connecticut contributed 8.0% to SERS, while the 50-state average contribution was 7.0%. These percentages are pension cost as a percent of payroll cost.

The higher level in Connecticut was necessary because state employees contributed only 2.2% to their own pensions, while the 50-state average employee contribution was triple that amount, or 6.6%.

The differential between Connecticut’s 8% and the national average of 7% amounted to a 14.3% higher level in Connecticut. Either way you look at the extra 14.3% – as a higher state cost or as a larger employee benefit – it was overly generous. So how did the center make its mistake? Instead of recognizing the impact of the level of employee contributions, the center glossed over them and only looked at the gross unallocated cost of pension benefits, namely 10.2% in Connecticut versus an average of 13.6% in the 50 states. This creates an illusion opposite to reality. The fair and accurate measure is net cost for the state and net benefit for employees, which, in Connecticut, was 8%. The gross cost of the benefit of 10.2% was offset by the employee contributions of 2.2%, leaving both the state’s net cost and the employee’s net benefit at 8%. Nationally, a gross cost of 13.6% was offset by employee contributions of 6.6%, leaving a lower net cost/benefit of 7%.

Author(s): Red Jahncke

Publication Date: 8 April 2021

Publication Site: Journal Inquirer

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