Governor Calls on Legislature to Act Quickly on State Employee Retirement Proposal

Governor M. Jodi Rell today called on legislative leaders to enact an early retirement plan for state employees that she is offering, and she wants the House and Senate to enact it this week.  The plan would offer early retirment to roughly 9,000 state employees who are aged 55 and over.  Full details of her proposal will be unveiled on Monday.

House Republicans proposed a similar Early Retirement Incentive Program (ERIP) which would have offered early retirment to 11,600 state employees at a savings of $163 million to the state as part of the House Republican budget proposal in April of last year.  At the time, Governor Rell and majority Democrats opposed the ERIP proposal. 

Governor Rell says she is introducing the proposal to save state employees from probable layoffs.  Those who take the early retirment would have to accept the proposal and leave state service by March 31st, 2009.

The Office of Fiscal Analysis projects that the deficit for the current fiscal year is $1.3 billion, and $8.7 billion for the next two fiscal years combined.