While athletic departments across the country lay off employees, UConn has largely avoided any layoffs. There's a reason why... (Borges) | The Boneyard

While athletic departments across the country lay off employees, UConn has largely avoided any layoffs. There's a reason why... (Borges)

The "Not a dime back" crew. LOL.

No full-time department employees have been laid off. Any staff reductions of union members would have to be negotiated between the university and its various unions. Athletic director David Benedict has no say in such decisions, though he admits if athletics employees weren’t unionized, UConn would likely be on that same list along with Memphis, Vanderbilt and others.

High-paid coaches like Dan Hurley, Geno Auriemma and Randy Edsall are members of the American Association of University Professors union and are covered by their collective bargaining agreement.
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JohnFSilver said:
Knowing a ton of peole who work as state employees - from state cops, corrections, in dmv, dss, to UConn —- that staff is hollowed out. The state needs to go on a hiring binge when this is over.
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When you make each employee more expensive you have to have less employees. The state can go on the binge when new hires are given 401ks rather than pensions.

The headline here was misleading, there was no budgeting heroics, just a political call by the Gov.
 
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Exit 4 said:
When you make each employee more expensive you have to have less employees. The state can go on the binge when new hires are given 401ks rather than pensions.

The headline here was misleading, there was no budgeting heroics, just a political call by the Gov.
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You go 401Ks, you are going to never find state employees of merit. They will leave at first moment The pension is there to keep the talent here. The reason you go to work for the state is to get the pension. Don't want to get into the economics of paying people in public and private sector similar compensation, but it is a give and take there to create equilibrium between the workforces.
 
JohnFSilver said:
You go 401Ks, you are going to never find state employees of merit. They will leave at first moment The pension is there to keep the talent here. The reason you go to work for the state is to get the pension. Don't want to get into the economics of paying people in public and private sector similar compensation, but it is a give and take there to create equilibrium between the workforces.
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No offense but most if not all of our state employees should be happy they even have a 401 k plan. Pensions were originally designed so low paying jobs like teachers in the 70 s got some income when they retired. A close friend of mines wife starting teaching in late 79. She told me she made 13 thousand a year. Within 4 years she was making over 40 thousand. She now makes 98 thousand a e year and is retiring this year. When she retires she will make over 80 thousand a year plus yearly increases. This is one of the reasons Connecticut is broke and in horrible trouble. The unions need to go now even if the state has to go bankrupt.
 
Agreed.

John. That’s an old argument left over from 40 years ago. Compensation for similar roles is pretty close now between the private and public sectors. Difference is that politicians have no cost management DNA
 
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Skiblets said:
Agreed.

John. That’s an old argument left over from 40 years ago. Compensation for similar roles is pretty close now between the private and public sectors. Difference is that politicians have no cost management DNA
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Exactly. When you include pensions and benefits, it is a somewhat even deal (depending on what employee values). Can't take those away.

As far as cost management, what's the utility in managing cots? What does it gain you? More services? Less tax burden? Those enacting those measures don't get bonuses for hitting targets. It's dumb. Very inefficient, not by design, but by practicality.

Government has to work 100% of the time. It doesn't, but that's the expectation. The private sector can probably operate at 99% in most industries (Airline, medical fields not withstanding). To get to that level of service that the government needs to operate at is cost-prohibitive. Imagine if you had an off-shore call center for Medicare and social security? LOL.

I like to use the unemployment system as an example. The state destroyed the office, I was unemployed a year before the pandemic and you couldn't even talk to a live person. No one complained about it. But, when the population needed it they demanded immediate service. That's impossible unless you are willing to stay bloated and ready.
 
Slick said:
No offense but most if not all of our state employees should be happy they even have a 401 k plan. Pensions were originally designed so low paying jobs like teachers in the 70 s got some income when they retired. A close friend of mines wife starting teaching in late 79. She told me she made 13 thousand a year. Within 4 years she was making over 40 thousand. She now makes 98 thousand a e year and is retiring this year. When she retires she will make over 80 thousand a year plus yearly increases. This is one of the reasons Connecticut is broke and in horrible trouble. The unions need to go now even if the state has to go bankrupt.
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So how much should she make in retirement? For a teacher, what would you say is a fair amount for her to retire on?
 
metsfan2323 said:
Not even close to being true.

Most state employees are paid very good salaries for their services, plus OT, plus great medical, and job security. The pension is cake on top of the frosting on top of another cake.
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I disagree on very good salaries and the pension. Not for the professional staff. The pension keeps you in the job for 15 years. People also go nuts over retention bonuses. Ya gotta treat your talent well.

Let's go UConn president's salary. $675K. The budget of that school is $2.7B. He has 10000 workers.

By private sector standards, underpaid. Many think he is overpaid. I can be convinced both ways. Just saying.
 
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If the pension calls were brought current, you could convince me to keep the pension. Today, someone works 20 years and retired for life at near full salary. That MIGHT have made sense when avg lifespan was closer to 60. Not when one can reasonably expect to live two times longer than they worked. And don’t even get me started in calculating service.

A pension should supplement you in retirement, not carry you. The state made a deal with the devil and they’ve found they can’t unwind the bargain. Take a look at what’s owed to state retirees - there is no possible way to cover those obligations. None.

And all it does is distract the govt from growing the economy and cause large employers to leave. Circle jerk
 
Huskygrad88 said:
Do with this what you will

www.courant.com

Report: Pensions for Connecticut public workers boost compensation 28% above the private sector

Retirement benefits for state and local government workers in Connecticut pushed overall compensation 28% above comparable private sector pay and benefits, a conservative think tank said in a recent study.
www.courant.com www.courant.com
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Not all equal. Look at this caveat. Got to take out UConn Health and doctors etc.

"Compensation is skewed by higher paid public employees such as physicians at state hospitals and pensions are intended to make up for lower salaries in other public sector jobs, he said. "
 
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JohnFSilver said:
So how much should she make in retirement? For a teacher, what would you say is a fair amount for her to retire on?
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A fair amount would be whatever her Defined Contribution (if only!) plan would have grown to, just like mine and the vast majority of American workers'. WE bear the risk, and reap the potential rewards, of our investment decisions/risk tolerance/time horizons, etc. We don't transfer any of that risk to "other people", nor do we expect them to bail us out of our bad/untimely/risk averse behaviors.

Public sector Defined Benefit plans are the scourge of the taxpayers, the unwilling victims of a political charade in which the both sides are sitting on the same side of the benefit negotiating table: the public unions and the very legislators beholden to them for their continued votes.

So easy to spend OPM.
 
TFlorida: The average retiree worked a little over 21 years, earned a salary of $42,000 and is receiving $22,442 in annual benefits, a state Department of Management Services report shows.
 
Exit 4 said:
I couldnt disagree more. By your logic no one would work in the private sector...but they do!!!!
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Nicely done. I love it when a very simple and obvious statement of truth blows the debate up.

Not to mention that any time the government needs something done that requires real hard to find talent it hires the private sector to accomplish the task.
 
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JohnFSilver said:
So how much should she make in retirement? For a teacher, what would you say is a fair amount for her to retire on?
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Certainly no more then she would get in the private sector which has no pensions. You have to save your own money and invest it so you can fund your own retirement.
 
I’ve worked both, mostly private. Seemed like greater financial opportunities exist in private. I personally made more money with less responsibilities in private. I love my current job because it is interesting to me but my retirement benefits will mostly be from my 401K. I will not receive much pension and what I do will lower my social security. Just saying it is not as glorious as non state workers will tell you.
 
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billybud said:
TFlorida: The average retiree worked a little over 21 years, earned a salary of $42,000 and is receiving $22,442 in annual benefits, a state Department of Management Services report shows.
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Glad to see you here. I thought we lost you.
 
JohnFSilver said:
So how much should she make in retirement? For a teacher, what would you say is a fair amount for her to retire on?
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The tone of your questions seem to imply you believe the teacher in question is not receiving retirement benefits out of the ordinary compared to the average worker. What do you think the average worker in a comparable job receives in retirement pay and benefits?

It's a hard question to answer because of so many variables.

How many people have full-time jobs that only require them to work about 9 months of the year with summers off and several weeks off during the school year?

How much is the job security enjoyed by teachers worth? How many teachers will ever face the white collar job losses being implemented by United Technologies in East Hartford and Middletown this week?

How many people will receive 80% of their highest salary in retirement pay after 40 years?

Is the teacher also eligible to receive Social Security Retirement Retirement Income?

Will the teacher also receive lifetime health insurance, dental insurance and other benefits as part of the overall retirement benefit?
 
Parting thought on the pension rabbit hole that grows bigger and deeper and more intractable everyday and that is to recognize that we live in a world with finite resources. And so basically over the past 20 years we have decided to take our tax funds and continue to pay overly generous benefits for past work rather than keep the current head count up to do the current job because state labor is a powerful reliable voting bloc. Sure we can talk all about the other problems, but much of our state's fiscal and service problems boil down to the decision to allocate resources to generous retirement obligations and while using job freezes to reduce present needs of today. A Puerto Rico style default is not out of the question in the long haul if action isn't taken to fix this imbalance soon.

Okay back to football.
 
A huge problem with the pension was the state not paying its portion. The employees have paid their share. Jody Rell bragged about amassing a rainy day fund while not making the contributions to the PF. The state has also borrowed from it and not paid the money back. Malloy at least tried to address the money owed to it.
 
Malloy hamstrung our state with his 2017 "concessions" deal with unionized state employees. Union leadership negotiated no layoffs until FY 21-22 in exchange for their "give backs". That's why Benedict couldn't touch anyone in AD department. Real question. What were CT DMV employees doing between March and June (besides collecting paychecks). So ridiculous.
 
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