Zenith 4 retired climate employees are now receiving more than $300,000 each in annual pensions.
The statistics additionally demonstrate that, for him and hundreds of other retirees, bills were rising at a slow pace, with cost of living increases starting at 2.5% and up to 6% each year.
The once-a-year increase would rapidly increase the number of backup retirees making more than $300,000, according to data from the Met Comptroller’s Office, as each of the five backup retirees is currently paid more than $280,000. Overall, 3,244 retirees were paid more than $100,000 each during the 2023 fiscal year, a huge jump from just 378 retirees who were receiving more than $100,000 in 2010, according to Weather data. According.
The ultimate recipient, John F. Viega earned approximately $382,000 throughout the 2023 calendar year. For the first half of this year, he was paid an additional $193,000. Viega served as Chairman of the Controls Section in the Industrial Faculty of Connecticut College for 26 years and spent a total of 37 years teaching at UConn.
The second highest recipient at $374,000 per year was Dr. Jack N. Blechner. He is a former teacher and former chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the UConn Fitness Center in Farmington.
Unlike many private sector workers, climate workers are not paid at a set rate for the food they survive in their lives; Annual COLA increases will have a big impact on bills. Blechner, for example, is now receiving $157,000 more than he did in 2005, 19 years ago.
Vincent Candelora, a North Branford area Republican leader, said most pensions are too high.
“I think there should be a conversation about putting a cap on them,” Candelora advised The Courant in an interview. “There are some individuals who are getting rich from this process, and these pensions are obscene. When you are going into public service, you should not become rich from it. Our entire pension system creates a lot of post-employment wealth that was never considered. Whether it’s increasing lifetime pensions by working overtime or drafting bigger paychecks, I think it should be examined – and we should set limits on it.
“Taxpayers are footing the bill for this,” he said. COLAs are generous. When you work for the State of Connecticut you are guaranteed a sweet deal for life. As a taxpayer, it is counterintuitive. You’re stuck paying for it.”
Hartford Area President Matt Ritter is right that a $300,000 pension is not sustainable, though he said several improvements have been made recently that have freed up a lot of cash.
The first significant reform was that untouched employees hired around July 31, 2017, have a hybrid system of a traditional pension and a 401(k)-style plan. This is the least beneficial of the climate escape plans and is much less beneficial to employees than the Tier 1 plans that were available to those hired before 1984.
Some other major reforms which were carried out under the then Govt. Dannel P. Malloy was a change to the long-standing practice that climate soldiers and alternative workers could spend large amounts of extra time in their last three years to boost their lifetime pensions. Now, since 2017, overtime for newly hired employees is calculated according to a 25-year rolling average instead of the usual 3 years of business. Thus, the employee will now have to work a significant amount of overtime throughout the business, compared to just the last three years.
“I wouldn’t expect to see that many pensions going forward as we’ve revised pension plans,” Ritter told The Courant.
The total payment in 2023 was a record-setting $2.65 billion to more than 59,000 retirees and beneficiaries as various families foot the bills. The average pension was once $44,378.
The Climate Escape Machine No longer comes with the easiest paid employees in higher education as they often are in an independent pension machine run through Academic Insurance Coverage and Annuity Affiliation Faculty Resignation Equity CapitalTreasury, called TIAA-CREF. .
disability pension
According to Family Information, the employee who earned the most cash in the first half of 2024 – $322,766 – is Joseph Schmid, a retired employee of the developmental services and products branch.
However, the data overall includes about $300,000 in retroactive bills from her disability pension, meaning a larger amount may not be current. According to the Office of the Climate Comptroller, his application for “service-connected disability retirement” due in December 2022 was rejected, “but the Medical Examination Board said it would look favorably on an application for non-service-connected disability.” ” The job, which oversees pensions.
Schmidt was granted “non-service-connected disability retirement” by the Clinical Board earlier this year and became entitled to retroactive billings.
After the Clinical Board found that his disability dated back to July 2018, he became eligible for payments for more than five years. Thus, according to the comptroller, Schmid was given a retroactive fee of $298,345.11 that extended to Jan. 31, 2024, and was paid this year.
Schmidt’s ongoing minimum pension benefit, including COLAs, is set at $58,000 per year.
Similarly, climate senator Paul Ciccarella will receive $412,000 in 2022, making him the highest-paid climate activist thanks to a pension. This included retroactive bills for years when his bills were canceled because the Board of Scientific Analysis ruled that he was no longer totally disabled.
Ciccarella’s situation is part of a 16-year-old story dating back to December 6, 2008, when he was the first prison barricade on the scene at the Hartford prison when two inmates were fighting in a dormitory environment at the end of a shift. , Ciccarella was once injured while trying to disrupt the war, and it was in the latter future that he worked for the Climate Change Section.
At one of the important extremes pensioners come with:
- Jeffrey D. Fisher, longtime UConn psychology teacher and initiation director of the Institute’s Collaboration on Fitness, Intervention and Coverage
- Dr. Edward A. Blanchett, Medical Director of the Corrections Branch
- Harry J. Hartley, former president of UConn
- Anthony DiBenedetto, former UConn vice president for tutorial affairs
- Richard Judd, former president, Central Connecticut Environmental College in Untouched Britain
- Dr. John R. Ray, UConn Fitness Middle Doctor; Former physician-chief, Connecticut Youngsters Scientific Middle
- Dr. Leslie S. Cutler, former chancellor, UConn Fitness Middle
difficult job
With pensions topping out this year, Ritter says workers are eligible for pensions for holding bad jobs like climate soldiers and prison guards.
“In many cases, people are doing jobs that are very difficult, very challenging and in some cases putting their lives at risk,” Ritter said. “After all, there are many jobs in state government where pensions are needed to attract workers to do a certain job.”
Recently, a 26-year-old Met Department of Transportation employee was killed when he was hit by a driver who was accused of driving under the influence on Interstate 91, he said. Additionally, a weather trooper was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver along Interstate 84 in Southington as the trooper was performing a traffic stop.
While mindful that pensions are necessary, Ritter understands the broader financial implications.
He added, “But I also respect the argument that a $300,000 pension is not sustainable and the state cannot afford it.”
In addition to the 2017 pension reforms, climate budget surpluses have recently led to nearly $8 billion in pension budget savings. This represents a major change to the environment that has undermined pensions for decades under various governors of both political parties. Those irregularities resulted in investment limits reaching a peak that prompted reforms implemented in 2017.
“My guess is that in 10 years from now, the legislature in Connecticut will say ‘Our pension fund is one of the top in the country,'” Ritter said. “If we continue on this path – we have always been in the bottom five – then I fully expect we will be in the top half of fully funded pension schemes. I really believe in that. We have made significant progress. “We’ve made a dent, but we still have a way to go.”
Christopher Keating can also be reached at ckeating@courant.com
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