By a 22-13 vote, Connecticut’s state Senate on Friday ratified contracts with state workers estimated to cost taxpayers roughly $1.9 billion.
The Democrat-controlled state House of Representatives approved the agreements with the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) 96-52 the prior day. All House Democrats and only one House Republican, State Representative Thomas Delnicki (R-South Windsor) (pictured above), voted for the deals. The Senate vote came down along party lines.
Gov. Ned Lamont negotiated the contracts with SEBAC last month and urged the legislature to finalize them. Budgetary conservatives warned against doing so, viewing the cost as excessive.
The agreements will bestow $3,500 in bonuses on each of the approximately 46,000 state staffers they cover. Workers will also get 2.5-percent pay increases which will be made retroactive to last summer. About two-thirds of state employees will furthermore receive “step” raises, meaning they’ll get elevated to the next pay grade.
The pro-free-market Yankee Institute (YI) strongly objected to the extent of the contracts’ pay hikes as well as their retroactive pension enhancements. The institute has also condemned a provision that requires state agencies to report the names of employees who have opted not to join the union representing the majority of department staffers or who have not paid union dues.
Supporters of the contracts insisted that lawmakers had no true choice but to accept them, arguing that their rejection would simply force labor negotiations into binding arbitration and inevitably saddle the state with even higher costs. The YI counters that such predictions are wrongly based on a narrow analysis of the contracts’ salary provisions and further contends that, since binding arbitration tends to yield expensive outcomes for taxpayers, lawmakers should simply end binding arbitration for public employee unions.
“Another day, another group of Connecticut lawmakers fretting about the state needing to approve a bad contract to avoid getting hit with a bad award under the state’s bad 1986 arbitration law,” YI tweeted on Friday. “Perhaps Connecticut could form some elected body that could change bad state laws.”
Republican officials and candidates said the expense the state will incur because of the agreements could have been better dedicated to providing tax relief for Connecticut residents.
“What reason could there have possibly been to justify signing off on nearly $2 billion in raises and bonuses to 46,000 state employees — more than $40,000 per worker — when we claim we cannot afford more than $336 million in [gas, property and other] tax relief for millions?” Lisa Seminara, a Republican running to succeed retiring state Sen. Kevin Witkos (R-Avon), said in a statement. “The priorities of this state, this administration and our current legislature are severely misplaced.”
The contracts’ approval was the second major win for organized labor in the Constitution State last week. On Thursday, state senators approved legislation barring companies from requiring workers to attend meetings wherein managers discuss their position on union organizing, politics or religion.
All Senate Democrats voted for the bill prohibiting management from holding “captive audience” meetings on such subjects. Joining Democrats were Chief Deputy Senate Republican Leader John Kissel (R-Enfield) and Deputy Senate Republican Leader Tony Hwang (R-Newtown). The legislation awaits consideration by the State House.
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Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Connecticut Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Tom Delnicki” by State Representative Tom Delnicki. Background Photo “Connecticut State Capitol” by Shah Ronak S. CC BY-SA 4.0.
