Officials lobby against teacher pension shift

WEST HARTFORD >> The largest teacher union and the largest municipal lobbying group joined forces this week to pay for a poll to show lawmakers that shifting the cost of the teachers retirement system to cities and towns is unpopular.

The poll of 600 voters found 72 percent oppose plans to use local property taxes to cover teacher retirement costs. And 67 percent of voters are opposed to using local property taxes to balance the state budget.

Mark Waxenberg, executive director of the Connecticut Education Association, said they called the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities to see if they wanted to help pay for a poll when they learned Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposal to shift one-third of teacher pension costs to municipalities might still be part of budget negotiations among legislators.

Later this month, the legislature’s two budget writing committees are expected to release their response to the Malloy budget proposal released in February, which included shifting $400 million in payments to the teachers retirement system to municipalities.

“Ninety percent of the costs to the teachers retirement fund is debt,” Waxenberg said. “Debt that the towns had nothing to do with and debt that the teachers had nothing to do with.”

He said they’re hoping legislators are listening to what the public had to say in the poll and we hope there’s another way to deal with the budget deficit “other than passing it onto the property taxpayers of the state of Connecticut.”