Dan Malloy, the former Stamford mayor running for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, said Gov. Rell’s announcement that she would push for another early retirement plan to help balance next year’s budget, is ill-conceived. Here’s his news release:
“Democratic candidate for Governor and former Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy today responded to news that Governor Rell has proposed a new early-retirement incentive plan for state employees:
“Apparently the Governor and her staff are hoping that two wrongs really do make a right. When the Governor pushed ahead with an early retirement plan last year, it was reminiscent of so many other programs under her administration: poorly conceived from the outset, badly implemented from the start, and mismanaged in the long run. Now she wants to do it all again.
“The problem with this type of program is clear: they sacrifice long-term economic stability and growth for a perceived short-term benefit. When employees take advantage of the plan they eventually have to be replaced, often at higher costs than if the current workers had stayed on the job. As just one example in last year’s plan we lost approximately 500 corrections officers – obviously, they’ll have to be replaced, and it costs approximately $30,000 to train each one.
“In addition, what often happens is that many employees who take advantage of the program begin collecting their pensions immediately, yet they’re quickly rehired by the state on a contractual basis to do what they were doing before they ‘retired.’ In fact, after the 2003 early-retirement program the total number of state employees only dropped temporarily for one year before rising the following year to a point even higher than before the program was tried. Where are the savings there?
“Rather than simply rehashing this plan in the hopes that it takes some short-term dollars off the books, the Governor should first call for an independent, audited analysis of whether her first plan actually saved any money in the short term and what the projected long-term costs will be. That’s the kind of results-based accountability that Connecticut needs in its Executive Branch, and which we’ve been lacking for so long.”