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Jim Brown is a resident of South Pine Creek Road in Fairfield. He submitted this open letter to TheDailyFairfield directed at state Sen. John McKinney, R-Fairfield, in regard to the states pension plan for public employees.
Sen. McKinney,
It was probably late last year when you casually asked me about what to do with the state's pension programs. I came up short with an answer at the time as I was still doing research on the matter and had yet to form an opinion. Now I know where I believe the state of Connecticut should be based on the federal model put in place over a quarter of a century ago.
In the mid-1980s, Congress set up the Federal Employees Retirement System for all new federal employees and all members of Congress. The three components are Social Security, which before 1984 federal employees did not participate in; a Basic Benefit Plan; and the Thrift Savings Plan. The purpose of this change was to bring the federal retirement benefits in line with what the private sector was offering at that time. The federal program certainly has some challenges in its present form today, but it has served the country well for the last 25 years. I believe the federal program can form the basis for reform at the state level and here in town, too.
The state must offer a pay and benefits package that is reasonable yet competitive. The place to start is to get all new state and municipal employees into the basic Social Security retirement and disability system and go from there with competitive thrift and retirement pension plans. Government is not a tech startup, a leveraged buyout, a real estate office or a two-person family law firm where 401(k) plans are appropriate for retirees. Government is an established operation, and the retiree benefit package should be appropriate for that venue, just as it is in nearly 40 percent of the established operations in the private sector.
None of this negates the state's current sorely underfunded retiree benefits situation, but it does offer up a way forward for new employees.
Cordially,
Jim Brown 982 S. Pine Creek Road Fairfield, CT 06824
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