Malloy Explains New Proposed Union Agreement

Governor Malloy released the following statement Friday on SEBAC action:

I am pleased that an agreement has been reached.  So that there is no confusion, let’s be clear about what this clarified agreement is.  This agreement saves the same amount of money as the last agreement– $1.6 billion over 2 years, $21.5 billion over 20 years – and it contains all of the same cost-saving provisions as the last agreement.

So what’s changed?  The health care language has been clarified to make it crystal clear that state employees are not being put into a new healthcare system called ‘SustiNet.’  There is language in the agreement that will allow the state to recoup the money state employees will be getting from a raise that just went into effect.  And the effective date by which state employees can retire before any of these changes go into effect has been changed from September 2, 2011 to October 2, 2011.  

That’s it.  No other changes from the first agreement.  I said all along that I was only willing to clarify terms from the last agreement, and that’s what we’ve done.

I hope state employees ratify this agreement, but I am assuming nothing.  If they ratify it, the vast majority of layoffs and painful spending cuts can be undone.  If this agreement fails, then we’ll unfortunately have to continue to lay people off and implement the spending cuts.