By Keith M. Phaneuf
Much of the focus on state government’s surging retirement benefit costs has been on their likely impact on programs and taxes over the next two decades.
And while that effect probably will be huge, those costs already have sapped significant funding from key priorities, particularly since the last recession ended seven years ago.
Recent efforts to rebuild Connecticut’s aging and clogged transportation network have bogged down, and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s latest 30-year initiative is in jeopardy as well.
Connecticut’s health care and social safety net, hailed by some but criticized by others as too generous, has sustained cuts.