CT State Employees Get Scheduled Raise Amid Economic Turmoil

CONNECTICUT — Thousands of state employees received a scheduled raise Wednesday despite Gov. Ned Lamont asking union employees to forgo the raise amid record high unemployment and a growing state budget deficit caused by the coronavirus.

The state is facing a projected general fund deficit of $443 million and a Special Transportation Fund deficit of $99 million for the fiscal year that just ended, according to the state Office of Fiscal Analysis. Lamont’s administration predicted in May that the current fiscal year would have a $2.3 billion shortfall.

The raise includes a 3.5 percent pay increase and a two percent annual step increase. The raise was negotiated as part of a 2017 agreement between the state and the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition. It came with a wage freeze from 2016 to 2019 and layoff protection from 2019 to 2021. It also created a hybrid 401k-style/pension plan for new state employees that is far less generous than the plan for current employees at the time.

Lamont a couple of weeks ago said he would prefer a general pay raise be postponed and that state employees on the front lines of the pandemic should receive hazard pay.

Union representatives said that state employees have taken six years of wage freezes over several deals and have taken other financial hits including high prescription drug co-pays. Lamont should instead ask big corporations and the state’s richest residents to contribute their fair share, according to the Hartford Courant. The state’s top rate income tax has been raised from 4.5 percent to 6.99 percent between 2003 and 2015.

State Senate Republican leader Len Fasano also asked unions to hit pause on their scheduled raise, which will cost the state $119 million in the general fund and $15.3 million in the special transportation fund.

“At a time when everyone is sacrificing so much, when jobs are disappearing around us, a small sacrifice of temporarily pausing a pay increase can go a long way,” Fasano said in late April. “Delaying these raises for state employees can mean someone else who works at a nonprofit can go back to work and provide needed care for someone who is physically, mentally, or emotionally struggling.”