Connecticut governor proposes pension changes

HARTFORD, Conn.—Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell has proposed creating a defined contribution plan for new state employees among other efforts to help the state cope with $34 billion in unfunded pension and retiree health benefits liabilities.

The proposals would affect the six state pension plans and eight state trust funds in the $22.8 billion Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds. State Treasurer Denise L. Nappier is the funds’ principal fiduciary.

Ms. Rell asked the state’s Post-Employment Benefits Commission, an advisory group created by executive order in February, to support her proposals to deal with about $9 billion in unfunded pension liabilities and $25 billion in unfunded retiree health benefits, according to a news release from Ms. Rell’s office issued Tuesday.

In a separate release issued Wednesday, Ms. Rell said several pension-related and health-related changes could save the state more than $300 million a year. Other changes “would have about $3 billion in longer-term effects,” the release said. “Savings from still others cannot—yet— be calculated.”

Among the changes: Requiring an average 3% increase in employee contributions to pensions, raising the normal retirement age to 65 from 62, capping per-person pension payments at $100,000 a year and calculating for pension purposes a retiree’s average salary over the final five years of employment, instead of the current three years.

“There are no magic ways to eliminate a $34 billion problem at a stroke—this is a problem that has developed over decades and it will take years of concentrated effort to resolve it,” Ms. Rell said a statement.

Ms. Rell didn’t offer details about creating a DC plan for new state employees. The state currently offers a 457 plan for state government employees and legislators as well as a 403(b) plan for employees of state educational institutions and hospitals.

In her own news release on Tuesday, Ms. Nappier said Ms. Rell’s remarks were similar to those made by a top official of the state’s Office of Policy and Management at a recent meeting of the Post-Employment Benefits Commission. OPM provides information and analysis to the governor on public policy issues.

At that time, the OPM official “was asked to provide a detailed cost savings analysis of each of the items,” Ms. Nappier said in her release. “To date, we have not seen that.”

Robert Steyer is a reporter for Pensions & Investments, a sister publication of Business Insurance.