By Keith M. Phaneuf
Connecticut’s massive long-term debt, deep pockets of poverty and more than 20 years of stagnant job growth threaten to sink the state’s economy for decades unless major reforms are enacted, according to a report today from a national fiscal responsibility group and the University of Connecticut’s economic think-tank.
Connecticut at Risk: calls for new reductions on public worker retirement benefits. Contributed graphic
Comeback America Initiative founder David M. Walker and UConn economics Professor Fred V. Carstensen, who outlined their report at the Hartford Marriott, called for dramatic new reductions on public worker retirement benefits, deeper investments in transportation, education and economic marketing, and an enhanced “culture of transparency” that will drive greater efficiencies in state spending.
Though Connecticut has one of the highest bonded debts, per capita, of any state in the nation, that represents just a fraction of the crippling debt taxpayers must answer for the in near future, said Walker, a Bridgeport resident and former U.S. comptroller general under President Clinton. He launched his Comeback America campaign for fiscal responsibility in 2010.
The picture goes from bad to scary, the report says, when one considers state employee and public school teacher pension funds that have less than half the resources they need to meet future obligations, as well as a state retiree health care program for which government has saved almost nothing.
Click here for more of story
