CANOODLING_SOCIOPATH t1_iy4wop0 wrote on November 28, 2022 at 7:50 PM

Reply to comment by SKIPPY_IS_REAL in Connecticut lawmakers begin special session on gas tax, hero pay, and more by jr_reddit

We are legally obligated to pay past pension obligations. We have signed contracts with workers laying out how much they would get in pensions, and it would be blatant theft to unilaterally stop paying the pension obligations we owe.

Not paying the pension obligations would be the equivalent of just refusing to pay our debt obligations to banks and bondholders. We can't legally just decide that we are no longer going to pay back the bond holders, and we can't legally not pay the pensioners.

CT past pensions were definitely too generous, especially all those tier 1 pensions that went to 1997 and the tier 2 pensions that went until 2011. But CT can only negotiate pensions for new employees. Currently new employees get tier 4 pensions, which are not at all generous. If we reduce those pensions further we will have to offer higher pay to new employees to attract people to those jobs, and CT is already having a hard time filling all the open positions in the state government (I don't have a strong position on if we should go with higher pay lower pensions or lower pay higher pensions).

The biggest problem than the pension amounts was that CT didn't save their actuarily required amount to actually pay for those pension obligations upfront, so we now have a massive portion of pension obligations that we never saved for that we need to pay.

CT is on a path towards paying down our past pension debt. So long as responsible legislatures and Governors are elected we will continue to pay about the same dollar amount until 2048 (which will gradually reduce it's amount as a percentage of the total budget) and after that we will be able to pay significantly less as we will have paid back all of our unpaid for pension obligations, and future payments will be for only pension benefits earned that year. Lamont has put us on this path, unpaid for tax cuts that Republicans proposed would accomplish the opposite.

SKIPPY_IS_REAL t1_iy4zc02 wrote on November 28, 2022 at 8:07 PM

 This was a good response. Thank you. Like I said, I actually am not upset with Lamont and I know Dan Malloy personally.  My parents actually introduced him to his wife.  I vote as an independent, but I voted for Lamont in this last election. I see Hartford's history and it's value. I do think that we are spiralling again though. We never really recovered from 2008, had a quick adrenaline shot during Covid from everyone leaving New York and Massachusetts, but we need to get cost of living under control in this state.  My fiancé and I make about $130,000 a year combine and would prefer to live here for the school system and general quality of life but many people I work with don't have a second income and things like electric bills, cost of gas and diesel, the cost of food and high property tax\car tax are making them all apply down south to get away.