The state budget process just got more difficult.
On Wednesday night, the state employee unions rejected the Rell administration’s offer to help balance the state budget by offering an early retirement incentive program to as many as 8,000 state employees.
The two sides had different versions of what happened at the contentious meeting. The unions said that Rell’s representatives “stormed out” of the meeting, but Rell’s supporters said that the administration’s budget director, Robert Genuario, has built a reputation over the years for being a mild-mannered negotiator who has never been known for storming out or even raising his voice.
“The governor is extremely disappointed that SEBAC – the coalition of state employee unions – tonight summarily rejected any consideration of an early retirement plan to save $65 million in state budget costs,” the administration said in a statement shortly before 10 p.m. “She is also disappointed that SEBAC would not allow the administration to put alternative cost-saving measures on the table. Governor Rell believes it is a time for renewed respect and cooperation, not intractability and hyperbole.”
Thirteen minutes before Rell issued her statement, the union coalition issued an e-mail that said that Rell’s agents had stormed out “after failing to produce” an analysis of the costs to the state pension plan of the early retirement incentive plan, known as an ERIP. Republicans have said that an estimated 8,000 state employees would be eligible, and an estimated 2,000 employees would take the offer. A projected 1,000 positions would be re-filled, and the state would thus eliminate 1,000 positions at an annual savings of $65 million.
A Capitol insider said the union leaders made it clear that they would not talk about anything but the ERIP, even though Rell’s negotiators wanted to breach other ideas. After a while, Rell’s negotiators said it was clearly obvious that nothing was going to be accomplished at the meeting.
The next move remained unclear late Wednesday night. House Republican leader Lawrence Cafero of Norwalk said recently that the state does not need approval from the unions to move ahead with the ERIP because the program is not a concession. He added that case law has allowed the practice. Rell, however, said recently that the easiest way to enact the ERIP was with union agreement.
Through spokesman Matt O’Connor, SEBAC issued statements from various union presidents in the coalition.
“We’re terribly understaffed already,” said Carmen Boudier, president of New England Healthcare Employees Union, District 1199/SEIU. “We have healthcare workers and corrections officers struggling through mandatory double shifts, and the state trooper force is below its statutory minimum. When bridges are found to need repairs, we don’t even have enough maintenance professionals to repair them,” she said.
Dave Walsh, president of the American Association of University Professors – CCSU, said in a statement: “College students are struggling to find courses they need to graduate, and we have backups and waiting lists for workers needing job services, and for businesses needing permits to create jobs. Why would the governor want to make a bad situation worse?”
The unions have details on their budget positions at www.InThisTogetherCT.org