Comment on Malloy, unions in pension deal

HARTFORD — A tentative deal to restructure state employee pension payments has been reached between Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition. The General Assembly needs to review the agreement, which Malloy and union leaders said would let state government fully fund its pension obligations while maintaining support for the state’s retirement system. When approving concessions from SEBAC in 2011, employees agreed to pay more for health benefits and to allow higher payroll deductions into their plans in exchange for a no-layoff guarantee for four years. “This agreement makes sense for the long-term retirement security of the public sector workers we represent and the taxpayers of Connecticut,” said Ron McLellan, president of the 4,000-member Connecticut Employees Union Independent SEIU Local 511. “We have been raising concerns since 2000 that the current level percent of payroll system insisted upon by then-Governor Rowland was not the best way to assure stable and reliable pension funding,” said Stephen Greatorex, business manager of the 3,200-member Connecticut State University branch of the American Association of University Professors. Republicans have proposed measures of their own: increasing individual contributions from the current 3 percent to 6 percent of salary for pensions; eliminating overtime income in the calculation of pensions; a three-year wage freeze; and the creation of a mandatory defined contribution system for new employees, finally breaking away from defined benefits.