Reps. Srinivasan and Tweedie Oppose Plan to Refinance Employee Pensions

HARTFORD – State Representatives Prasad Srinivasan (R-Glastonbury) and Mark Tweedie (R-Glastonbury & Manchester) today voted against a pension funding reform agreement made between the governor and union leaders, and urged the legislature to work together to assess alternative methods to address the state’s growing pension system problems.

While majority leaders want to extend the financing of the State Employee’s Retirement System (SERS) unfunded liability from 2032 to 2046, republican lawmakers from both the House and Senate Chambers had released data obtained from two actuarial analyses that show pairing pension finance changes with modifications to state employee benefits could increase the solvency of the state pension plan. With this report, minority leaders shared how additional, more effective and acceptable steps can rebalance the state’s unfunded pension liabilities.

“This refinancing scheme was drafted to cost less over the initial years of the agreement; however, in the later years, the costs will be significantly higher compared to the current schedule of contributions,” said Rep. Srinivasan. “The net impact of the lower costs in the beginning, and higher costs later on, is that taxpayer-funded contributions would be $11 billion more over the life of the agreement. This is unacceptable.”

“This agreement is short-sighted and damaging to the State of Connecticut in the long-run,” said Rep. Tweedie. “The statistics clearly show that the plan does nothing for our goal of sustainability, which is incredibly disappointing.”

The resolution passed through the House on a near party-line vote of 76-72.