July 29, 2019
Excerpts from commentary in this morning’s Hartford Courant, titled "Public Sector Employees Contribute to the State’s Economy. They Shouldn’t be Vilified," which is written by Connecticut Coalition for Retirement Security campaign coordinator Alisha Blake.
"More often than not, public sector workers are bringing home less money than they could by doing similar work in the private sector, but not without good reason."
"Yet these workers are too often vilified for having the security that comes with a defined benefit retirement plan. It’s time to change the narrative that wealthy and corporate special interests are spinning about pensions."
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"It is important to remember that most opposition to public pensions is funded by billionaires like the Koch brothers, the Yankee Institute, and the Reason Foundation — groups who are looking to change state and municipal systems to further their own self-interested agendas. John Arnold, a former Enron energy trader who has become the chief funder of anti-pension activity across the nation, saw his own net worth soar to $3.3 billion by the end of this fiscal year and has spent nearly $50 million over the length of his career on his anti-pension crusade."
"Much of their research is biased, often inflating issues to scare lawmakers into making changes to pension systems. They claim that public employees are greedy and using their pensions to get rich, but the actual numbers show otherwise."
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