Ridgefield BOE Opposes Governor's Funding of Teachers Retirement System, Sends Message to Hartford

Ridgefield BOE is opposed to the current proposal regarding the funding of the Teachers Retirement System (TRS) as proposed in the Governor’s Budget

Ridgefield Board of Education recently submitted additional testimony to the Appropriations Committee at the State Capitol in Hartford regarding municipalities funding the teacher's pensions. 

The letter, signed by all BOE members, reads:

HB 7148 An Act Concerning the State Budget for the Biennium Ending June 20th, 2021, and Making Appropriations Therefor

Dear Senator Osten, Representative Walker, Senator Hartley, Representative DiMassa and members of the Appropriations Committee,

The Ridgefield Board of Education acknowledges the diligence and commitment of the members of the Appropriations Committee and is grateful for your public service to the people of Connecticut. We would like to address the funding of the Teachers Retirement System (TRS) as proposed in the Governor’s Budget. Ridgefield BOE is opposed to the current proposal for the following reasons:

1. The TRS was established to provide post-retirement income for Connecticut’s teachers - and educators chose to remove themselves from the national social security system. The TRS is managed and negotiated by the State. Municipalities have no control, accountability or responsibility for the TRS. The proposed legislation would retain responsibility for the TRS at the state level while shifting the fiscal obligations towards municipalities. Towns will be required to contribute significantly to the fund, without oversight of the spending of their tax dollars.

2. The fiscal difficulties posed by the TRS have their root cause in the decisions by many legislators over many years to underfund the pension pool. The decisions were expedient and short-term but they will affect the long-term fiscal stability of the state. These decisions were made at the state level - not the municipal level. Yet now the municipalities are being forced to bail out the state for past decisions at the state level that has yet to be rectified. Any municipal contribution under the current proposal is a band-aid, not a solution, to the financial mess.

3. Per the proposed legislation, Ridgefield will receive a bill for $450,000 in the first year of the phased-in contributions, rising to $1.4 m by year three. We will pay a rate of 49% of the TRS for our teachers because Ridgefield has many employees with advanced degrees, seniority, and longevity (who, under the contractual wage steps, are paid above the median teacher salary identified in this proposal). We have negotiated wage and cost of living increases in a local context. Ridgefield borders New York state which has significantly higher salaries, and the other Fairfield County towns need to provide market competitive compensation for skilled educators. Competitive wages for our experienced and skilled teacher workforce is supported by the residents of Ridgefield when they vote for annual budget appropriations.

4. The requisition of $1.4m to the state for TRS will be a hardship for our Town and schools. We will be forced to increase local taxes or make significant cuts to our education budget. We already struggle to keep our local taxes at a manageable level for our entire community of families, retirees, and seniors. To put this in perspective, $1.4 m represents about 1.5% of our current BOE budget and could mean having to make devastating cuts to educational programming such as:

Athletic Department at RHS $1.1m
Literacy support in 6 ES (12 positions) $1.2m
High School World Language Department $1.5m
High School Social Studies Department $1.5m
Teaching & Learning (Curriculum) $1.4m

This is only a sample of those parts of our budget that have similar costs to the TRS contribution. Each one of these would directly impact the students and residents of our Town.

We have planned for the education of our students and built budgets to support these aims and meet all state and federal mandates. The TRS is controlled by the state and managed by the state. The Ridgefield Board of Education asks the legislature to meet its obligations to our teachers and to not impose additional taxation on the residents who have already contributed via their state taxes to the TRS.

Respectfully,

Members of the Ridgefield Board of Education

Margaret Stamatis, Chair
Carina Drake
Tracey O’Connor
Douglas Silver, Vice-Chair
Sharon D’Orso
Jonathan Steckler
Kathleen Holz, Secretary
James Keidel
Frances Walton

The letter, dated April 29, comes on the heels of the BOE letter to the Education Committee.

View Legislative Advocacy section of the BOE website for links to all of the BOE correspondences to Hartford.

R
Submitted by Ridgefield, CT

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