Letter: Base Pensions On Base Pay

Letter as it appeared in the Hartford Courant

I’m glad to see that there is strong support for policies to prohibit state employees, including lawmakers, from padding their pensions [Jan. 10, Opinion, “Legislators, Stop Padding Your Pensions”].

To set the record straight, Connecticut Republicans have repeatedly put forward proposals to calculate pensions using only base salary pay. The goal of our proposals was to prohibit additional payments, such as overtime and mileage reimbursements, from being counted toward any state employee’s pension — including our own.

Such proposed changes to keep these funds out of pension calculations were repeatedly put on the table by our former leaders John McKinney and Larry Cafero and were most recently included in our last budget proposal, “Pathway to Sustainability,” released in April.　
I hope the re-energized support from the press and public on this issue will help all lawmakers see the value in the pension reform proposals Republicans have offered in the past and will offer again this year.