Zimmerman says middle class doesn't want to be hurt by cutbacks

By Scott Benjamin

NEWTOWN – Eva Bermudez Zimmerman, who took a surprising 40 percent of the delegates last month at the state Democratic Convention for the nomination for lieutenant governor, says with a projected $4 billion gap for the next two-year cycle, the top concern among voters is “how we’re going to balance the budget, and is it going to hurt my pocket book?”

Zimmerman, 31, who is an organizer for the Service Employees International Union, said the chief issue among Connecticut state employees: “Is the pension [system] going to survive?”

At least four of the candidates seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination this year – David Stemerman of Greenwich, David Walker of Bridgeport, Mike Handler of New Canaan and Bob Stefanowski of Madison - have said that there will not be enough money over the coming years to pay for pension and health care obligations for the state employees.

They have each said the state employee collective bargaining units will have to accept severe concessions to stabilize the projected budget deficits.

“That’s just opinions. That’s not fact,” said Zimmerman.

However, CT Mirror recently reported that the state Commission on Fiscal Stability and Economic Competitiveness stated in its 68-page report this winter that there are likely $100 billion in long-term obligations that will have to be funded. The online niche journalism web site stated that “analysts say paying pensions for municipal teachers and pension and retirement health care benefits for state employees will place unprecedented pressure on state finances for the next 15 to 20 years.”

The Pew Charitable Trusts reported this month that the pension costs “could reach unaffordable levels in the early 2030s.”

“They’ve done their share and maybe more,” Zimmerman said in an interview regarding the concessions that state employees made in 2011 and 2017. “They’ve made concessions every single time.”

Union leaders have said the 2017 agreement would save the state $24 billion over the next 20 years and noted that the state employees will now be making larger payments toward their pensions.

CT Hearst business columnist Dan Haar has reported that the state employees have accepted wage freezes in five of the eight years that Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Stamford) has been in office. Malloy announced last year that he would not seek a third term in 2018.

Haar has stated that the principal obstacle are the legacy costs of pensions and health care benefits that were not properly funded for decades.

Zimmerman, who formerly served on the Newtown Legislative Council and ran unsuccessfully against state Rep. Mitch Bolinsky (R-Newtown) two years ago in the 106^th state House District, faces former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz of Middletown, who garnered the convention endorsement with 59 percent of the delegates, in the August 14 primary.

Zimmerman had been running for the Democratic nomination for Secretary of the State until three days before the convention balloting. She said “through a lot of phone calls and hard work from my volunteers” she was able to easily ascend the 15 percent threshold needed to automatically force a primary.

She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Pre-Law from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico.

“I learned that in politics you have to have a lot of patience and a lot diplomacy,” she recalled.

CTNews Junkie has reported that state Sen. Gary Winfield (D-New Haven), who nominated Zimmerman at the state convention, has said “She has deep relationships in [the state Capitol]. Making policy means having those relationships.”

New Haven Mayor Toni Harp and the Elm City’s state legislators were among those that recently attended a rally in support Zimmerman’s campaign.

Zimmerman would be the first Hispanic statewide official elected in Connecticut. A survey earlier this year indicated that the state ranks first in New England and 14^th in the nation in racial diversity.

Gary Rose, the chairman of the Political Science Department at Sacred Heart University, has stated that the “rise of the Hispanic population” in Connecticut has “been a benefit for the Democrats.”

Regarding the state’s fiscal obligations, it has reached the point where Malloy has proposed having the municipalities pay for a third of the teachers’ pensions, which the state has completely financed since 1939 and reportedly are underfunded.

“I think that’s more of a conversation to have with the teachers union,” said Zimmerman.

Washington Post economics columnist Robert Samuelson has stated that in the mid-1950s 36 percent of private sector employees were unionized but by 2010 the figure had declined to 6.9 percent, which was less than when federal labor relations legislation was established in the 1930s.

Samuelson wrote that with an increase in deregulation, digitization and foreign trade over the last generation, there has been considerable pressure on unions representing private sector employees.

The state Commission on Fiscal Stability and Economic Competitiveness reported in March that Connecticut’s economy contracted eight percent between 2007 and 2016. Farmington Bank economist Donald Klepper-Smith, who chaired former Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s (R-Brookfield) economic team, has noted that Connecticut is the only New England state that hasn’t recaptured all of the jobs lost during the 2008 recession.

Samuelson contends that part of the reason for the severe decline in the private sector unions is that they didn’t make enough concessions in the changing climate and “Big Labor became Little Labor.”

He wrote in 2011 as Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker took steps to eliminate workers and reduce bargaining rights, “States and localities face long-term budget squeezes. Labor costs represent roughly half of their spending notes the Cato Institute’s Chris Edwards. Pension and retiree benefits are underfunded. Teachers unions are being pressed to weed out poor performers. All these unions are on the defensive. Critics are less Republicans than taxpayers and parents.”

State Rep. Bob Godfrey (D-110) of Danbury has said the state employee collective units have considerable leverage at the State Capitol, but no more than some other groups.

However, over the last two years the state employee bargaining units have faced more competition in annexing voter support.

The Connecticut Business & Industry Association has become more active in endorsing candidates for the General Assembly and CT Realtors is sponsoring gubernatorial debates and held a rally last year at Bushnell Park in which University of Connecticut women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma gave the keynote speech.

Malloy has said that over the last seven years he has made operations more economical by trimming the full-time state work force by 12.6 percent. Would Zimmerman like that trend to continue?

“I would like to see a reality where the work force is stronger,” she replied.

Zimmerman said that she believes that the wage stagnation of the recent years is largely due to too few private sector employees are represented by a collective bargaining unit.

“Labor has always been an advocate for the middle class,” she explained.

Cornell University economist Robert Frank has said the gap between the top one percent and the middle class has grown considerably since the early 1980s.

Zimmerman said that the problems has been exacerbated by big box stores such as Wal-Mart and Target have not providing adequate health insurance for their employees, which in some instances has forced them to utilize government programs. She said if the big box stores provided health care coverage there would be fewer costs on the state taxpayers.

Zimmerman also objects to the Fiscal Stability commission’s recommendation that the General Assembly have more control in approving contracts with the collective bargaining units for the state employees.

“You have a process,” she said of the current system in which the negotiations are mostly conducted with members of the executive branch of state government.

“I would say that what we have right now is fine,” Zimmerman declared.

However, last year the Pew Charitable Trusts reported that Connecticut was one of only four states that uses collective bargaining with state employees.

Zimmerman said she supports the recommendation by the Fiscal Stability Commission to gradually increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

She said she has family members who own small businesses who have related that they are comfortable with the change since it would not be implemented immediately.

Zimmerman said she has some areas that she wants to address if she is eventually elected to the state’s number two position.

“I’d love to concentrate on health care,” she said. Another goal would be to increase attention on education.

Regarding health insurance, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, the Republican convention-endorsed gubernatorial candidate, has said that for years - even before former Democratic President Barack Obama’s 2010 reform - Connecticut has done an admirable job of keeping people covered through such programs as Charter Oak and Husky.

“However, there’s always gaps,” Zimmerman said. “There is a waiting list. It depends on how much funding.”