“The governor’s plan to stabilize the state’s retirement fund for teachers appears to adopt the structural changes we’ve long advocated for,” said AFT Connecticut President Jan Hochadel. “Smoothing out future payments will help make-up for decades of politicians failing to adequately invest in this public asset and begin to restore stability to educators’ pensions.”
“We teach our students to see the world not simply in black and white, but in shades of gray,” added Hochadel, who previously taught in Connecticut’s Technical High School System. “In that spirit, there are proposals in the governor’s budget package that demand our opposition and protest. We’ve already made clear we’re not willing to shift more risk onto the backs of retired state employees, which threatens to pick the pockets of seniors living on fixed incomes.”
“We oppose a scheme lacking detail to saddle local communities with additional costs to support their educators’ pensions,” said AFT Connecticut Vice President for PreK-12 Teachers Stephen McKeever. “Such a move would hike local property taxes and imperil students’ opportunities to learn.”
“That sounds like the austerity policies that politicians in Hartford have pushed for the past two years,” added McKeever, who teaches science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in Middletown Public Schools. “That approach has failed to move the needle on our state’s economic health. We will instead advocate real solutions that enable all working families in Connecticut to thrive together.”
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AFT Connecticut represents approximately 30,000 hard-working women and men in PreK-12 education, healthcare, public service and higher education from more than 90 local unions throughout the state. For more information, visit aftct.org or follow the labor federation on Twitter at @AFTCT and on Facebook at AFT Connecticut.
Click here for the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition’s (SEBAC) earlier statement.
Click here to access Governor Lamont’s 2019 legislative proposals.
