Malloy toughed out state employee unions

Nobody can say that Gov. Dannel Malloy doesn’t have guts. He faced down the state employee unions, and he squeezed $1.6 billion of concessions out of them over the next two years by not only threatening, but acting on, thousands of layoffs when at first those concessions did not materialize. Now, he’s backed down on the layoffs since the unions agreed to enough compromises to help him balance the state budget. Of course, he had hoped for $2 billion in concessions, but filled in the extra $400 million with cuts in spending and increased tax collection.

That $400 million, while a fraction of the full amount of the $3.6 billion budget deficit Malloy was facing when he took office, will seem like real money when those spending cuts filter their way down to the local governments throughout the state. While paying more taxes, Connecticut citizens will be receiving fewer services and may have to kick in more than expected at the municipal level in order to bolster their cities and towns through the cuts.

The governor’s deal still has to meet the test of approvals through multiple unions and the state Legislature, but given the solid basis on which Malloy built his budget, it seems likely it will be accepted by all.

The concessions the unions gave back, including a wage freeze for two years, emphasize just how many opportunities for remuneration state workers have compared to those who work in the private sector: wages, longevity pay, health care and retirement benefits, incremental pay and lump-sum pay. There are too many workers in Connecticut who would feel fortunate just to have wages, rather than unemployment or nothing, after the Great Recession.

Still, Malloy achieved what former Governors M. Jodi Rell and John Rowland could not, which is to obtain more concessions out of the powerful state employee unions than they wanted to give. Let’s hope that his promise of no layoffs of current state employees for at least four years does not come back to haunt him and that the economy improves to the point that such action would not have been considered in the coming years in any case.

Farewell to Jack Mahoney

This is to salute the life of a wonderful educator, gentleman and Northwest Corner icon who died this week. John L. Mahoney, better known as Jack to all, former principal of his beloved Housatonic Valley Regional High School, remained supremely dedicated to improving education for the students of Region One until the day he died.

Jack graced these pages with a series of columns on education, The Education Observer. This week, find the final column he wrote for us reprinted on the Viewpoint page as a tribute to him and all the knowledge he had that he shared so freely and openly with so many for so many years. Jack will be sorely missed by the many people whose lives he touched so deeply.