3,856 State Workers Take Retirement Incentive, Exceeding Goal
http://blogs.courant.com/capitol_watch/2009/07/3856-state-workers-take-retire.html
By Jon Lender
on July 2, 2009 11:33 AM
Governor M. Jodi Rell said Thursday that 3,856 state employees — far more than the original estimate of 3,000 — have left the state payroll under the “Retirement Incentive Program” she negotiated with state employee unions and the General Assembly later approved.
State officials had hoped to save $110 million a year via the retirement incentive program that closed on Wednesday, and Rell said now the “savings to taxpayers are likely to be greater.”
“The many years of service and dedication that the retiring employees have given to the people of Connecticut are deeply appreciated – and each of them will be missed,” Rell said. “However, I am very pleased by the success of the RIP, which is critical to cutting the size and cost of state government. With our state continuing to feel the ravages of this global economic downturn, we must take every possible step to make Connecticut’s government more affordable for taxpayers.
“I have already taken steps to ensure that the savings we are achieving through the RIP will be preserved. The practice of rehiring retirees on 120-day contracts will be sharply curtailed,” Rell said.
Now the question will be whether state administrators can live up to those words and preserve the intended savings. Referring to a subject that The Courant has reported on extensively this year, Rell said: “There have been too many reports of abusive ‘double-dipping,’ so all such contracts will have to be approved through my office and the retirees will come back at no more than 75 percent of their previous salary. Similarly, state agencies have already been given guidelines on how and when we will ‘refill’ positions left vacant by retirements.”
“Those of us who remain state employees will continue to provide the superior service that Connecticut residents expect and demand,” Rell said. “By severely restricting the rehires for these positions, we can ensure that our government is permanently smaller – and less expensive.”
The total of retirements reported by Rell under the incentive plan was about 400 higher than the number counted so far by state comptroller Nancy Wyman, whose office process the applications and pays pensioners.
Steve Jensen, a spokesman for Wyman, said that in a preliminary count the comptroller’s office has noted more than 3,800 new retirement applications since June, when the retirement incentive program began. However, several hundred of them appear to be “regular” retirements, not related to the incentive program, he said.
For example, many of them were former employees who had put in enough years to earn a pension, but were too young to receive it when they left the state payroll, he said. When they turn 55, their pensions can kick in — and such regular retirements may be entering into the total now, he said.
However, Rich Harris, a governor’s office spokesman, said Rell’s tally came from a survey by the Department of Administrative Services of every personnel office at state agencies. Harris said that the differing tallies of the governor’s office and the comptroller should reconcile after final processing of all the retirement applications.
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