Malloy’s legislative appointees get big pension boost

 

By Ed Jacovino
Journal Inquirer

Published: Saturday, February 26, 2011

 

HARTFORD — For the 10 former Democratic lawmakers appointed to top posts in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration or in state government, their new jobs came with big-time pension payouts.

Consider Melody A. Currey, the former East Hartford representative and mayor who is now commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles.

She would have retired with a $8,200 yearly state pension based on her 18 years in the legislature. That figure balloons to $45,500, assuming she stays in the $130,000-a-year post for the next four years of the Malloy administration.

Multiply that for the 25 years she might be expected to collect that pension and the extra cost to taxpayers is about $932,000. Add in the nine former lawmakers in similar positions and the extra pension payouts come to about $5 million over that 25 years.

State employees qualify for pensions after five or 10 years on the job. The pension is based on an average of the employee’s salary over his or her top three money-making years.

By picking former lawmakers, Malloy and other government officials made it easier for Currey and the others to meet that 10-year threshold. Appointees from outside state government might not work for long enough because governors and state constitutional officers serve four-year terms.

These calculations are estimates produced by a pension-calculator program on the state comptroller’s website.

The pension estimates are based on several assumptions: That the appointees wouldn’t get a raise while serving in the legislature, that they wouldn’t have won re-election in 2012, and that they wait until they turn 62 to collect a pension — retiring earlier would mean a reduced pension.

Andrew J. McDonald, who gave up his job as a state senator to be Malloy’s chief legal counsel, says these lawmakers-turned-administrators shouldn’t be seen as being only after the money.

“Most assuredly, I did not take this position for financial purposes,” McDonald said Friday. He said he took the job because of his belief in Malloy as a leader.

McDonald’s state pension would increase from $4,500 a year to about $25,700, as long as he keeps his new $160,000 salary for four years.

But he walked away from a bigger salary at the law firm Pullman & Comley to take the post. McDonald wouldn’t say what he made at Pullman & Comley, but a 2007 report showed the company made $525,000 in profit per partner, which equates to the salary an average partner would make. He also has a retirement plan based on his work there.

Here’s how the other administrative appointees stand to gain in their state pensions:

• John C. Geragosian, a former representative from New Britain, would have earned a $7,200 pension under his salary as a lawmaker. Now, with his $145,000 salary as auditor of public accounts, he could collect $40,600 after retiring.

• Deborah W. Heinrich, a former representative from Madison, would have earned a $2,900 pension. Now, with her $70,000 salary as Malloy’s liaison to nonprofit companies with state contracts, she could retire with a $9,300 yearly pension.

• Christopher L. Caruso, a former representative from Bridgeport, would have earned a $9,400 pension. Now, with his $70,000 salary as an employee in the Labor Department, he could retire with a $22,300 pension.

• David McCluskey, a former representative from West Hartford, would have earned a $6,400 pension. Now, with his $95,000 salary as a member of the Board of Pardons and Paroles, he could retire with a $20,200 yearly pension.

• James F. Spallone, a former representative from Essex, would have earned a $5,100 pension. Now, with his $119,600 salary as the deputy secretary of the state, he could retire with a $22,200 yearly pension.

• Michael P. Lawlor, a former representative from East Haven, would have earned an $11,100 pension. Now, with his $135,000 salary as an undersecretary in the governor’s budget office, he could retire with a $57,600 pension.

• Two other Malloy appointees — Donald J. DeFronzo, a former New Britain senator, and former Senate President Pro Tem Kevin B. Sullivan of West Hartford — couldn’t be included in the calculations. Both had already retired from state work and were collecting pensions.

DeFronzo is now commissioner of the Department of Administrative Services. He worked for 13 years in the Office of Policy and Management before being elected. His new salary is $160,000 yearly.

And Sullivan, who is now commissioner of the Department of Revenue Services was a former state senator who briefly was promoted to lieutenant governor. His new salary is $171,566, meaning he could retire with a $67,000 yearly pension.

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Town aid at issue; Malloy administration officials say they will readdress town funding

 

By Ed Jacovino
Journal Inquirer

Published: Wednesday, February 23, 2011 2:35 PM EST

 

HARTFORD — The governor’s budget office is backpedaling on a proposal that would have left several area towns out millions of dollars in state aid.

“We are aware of the problem and we are looking for ways to fix it,” Gian-Carl Casa, undersecretary for legislative affairs for the governor’s budgetary Office and Policy and Management, said Tuesday.

The change, which was part of the two-year budget plan Gov. Dannel P. Malloy proposed last week, would keep a local property tax exemption on manufacturing machinery and equipment. But it would eliminate funding for the state payment in lieu of taxes program that reimburses municipalities for that lost tax revenue.

That program paid out more than $1 million each this year to several towns in north-central Connecticut. Without the money, those towns — South Windsor, East Hartford, Windsor Locks, and Windsor — stand to lose under the governor’s proposal. And that would leave local leaders to either raise property taxes or cut services to make up the difference.

The proposal flies in the face of much of Malloy’s budget rhetoric. He had pledged to “hold towns harmless” by keeping level state grants for local education and opening up new tax streams for cities and towns, such as giving them a sliver of the sales tax and eliminating property tax exemptions on boats and airplanes.

And Malloy reiterated his commitment to town aid in his budget speech last week: “This budget does not cut overall funding for cities and towns,” he said.

Administration officials directed questions about the funding loss to the Office of Policy and Management.

Casa acknowledged the office hadn’t anticipated cuts in aid to some towns. That’s what officials are working to reverse, he said. They’ll approach lawmakers on the budget-writing Appropriations and the Finance, Revenue, and Bonding committees once a plan is formed.

Winners, and losers

Municipal aid overall does increase under Malloy’s proposal, from $3.4 billion to $3.7 billion. But that comes at the expense of some towns.

South Windsor, for example, got $1.08 million this year for equipment reimbursement. Under the governor’s proposal, it would see $615,000 in the 2011-12 fiscal year in new revenue tied to hotel taxes, sales taxes, and the like. The net loss would be $469,000, based on this year’s equipment reimbursement. In the second year of the state budget, that net loss would be $233,000.

Windsor, at $1.04 million in equipment reimbursements, would lose $409,000 in 2011-12 and $88,000 in 2012-13, based on this year’s reimbursements.

In East Hartford — home of Pratt & Whitney, and the state’s top recipient of manufacturing equipment reimbursements — the benefits of new tax revenue don’t come close to making up the loss in reimbursement for manufacturing equipment.

The town is projected to bring in an extra $693,000 in the budget’s first year and $915,500 in the second year. It stands to lose $3.58 million each year on manufacturing equipment, for a net loss of $2.87 million the first year and $2.66 million in the second.

Windsor Locks would get an extra $421,300 in the first year and $1.38 million in the second year in new revenue — driven mainly by a new tax on airplanes. But that’s still less than the $1.57 million the town would lose for manufacturing equipment. So that means the town would stand to lose $1.15 million in the 2011-12 fiscal year, and $191,000 in the next year.

James Finley, executive director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, said today he plans to meet this week with Benjamin Barnes, Malloy’s budget director and secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, to work out a deal to close those gaps.

“He’s given us a commitment to try to work out a solution to try to ‘hold municipalities harmless,’” Finley said. “The governor’s office has identified this was one of the unintended consequences of removing this PILOT grant.”

One solution would be to create another grant for those cities and towns that are losers under the proposal, Finley said.

Rep. Henry J. Genga, D-East Hartford and a member of the Appropriations Committee, said he’ll wait for a proposal from the governor before he tries to make up the loss for his town.

Genga said he questioned Barnes on the issue last week and was satisfied with the answer. “It seemed apparent that he knew this wasn’t acceptable, based on the principles they espoused of protecting local services,” Genga said Tuesday. “That wasn’t their intent with this.”

Overall, Malloy’s two-year, nearly $40 billion budget calls for 2.4 percent increases in state spending each year. Taxes would increase $1.5 billion in the first year and $1.4 billion in the second, through income tax rate hikes, an increase in the sales tax, and the elimination of sales tax exemptions on items such as haircuts and clothing under $50.