Less than 24 hours after Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell unveiled her proposal, the two leading Democratic candidates for governor ripped her plan for early retirement for state employees.
Both Greenwich cable TV entrepreneur Ned Lamont and former Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy said the idea is pennywise and pound foolish – saving some money in the short-term and costing even more in the long-term as state employees head out the door.
The state, they argued, will lose some of its best and brightest as thousands of experienced employees leave.
“The worst part is that the ‘savings’ this short-sighted proposal offers are a drop in the bucket – savings that are overshadowed by the loss of talent and the time, energy, and money it will take to train their replacements,” Lamont said. “It’s time to stop kicking the can down the road.”
Malloy said, “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.”
Malloy also complained that some state employees have traditionally become double-dippers by being rehired for 120 days – even while collecting their pensions.
“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,” Malloy said. “Where are the savings there?”
But House Republican leader Lawrence Cafero, who helped craft the initial Republican early retirement plan in April 2008, said that both Lamont and Malloy are wrong.
“Their response and reaction to the early retirement plan epitomizes their campaigns,” Cafero said in an interview. “Neither of them has specified one program they would cut to balance this budget. These two gentlemen, who hope to be governor, deserve to give an explanation to the people. They owe the public nothing less. What is their plan? What is their plan?”
Regarding Lamont’s comment that Rell’s proposal is “kicking the can down the road,” Cafero said that legislative Democrats – who hold veto-proof majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly – have been kicking the can down the road since the budget crisis started in 2008.
The candidates, he said, have not delivered the level of specificity in the governor’s budget or the line-by-line plan by Republican legislators.
“Mr. Malloy has been running for governor for four years. Where is his plan?” Cafero asked. “He has not proposed one specific tax or cut. It’s all generalities.”
Both Lamont and Malloy, Cafero said, are hurling criticisms from the sidelines without playing the game.
“That’s like being in the stands, saying the pitcher is not throwing the right pitches,” Cafero said. “You’ve got to go down on the field and throw one.”