How Overtime Impacts State Debt

We’ve said that given the growth of state spending and the struggle of Connecticut’s taxpayers to afford it, every effort should be made to make state government as efficient as possible.
It’s the subject of our current public campaign and a report we released earlier this year.
Some say that there’s little state government can do right now, in view of multi-year agreements with state employee unions.
That may be, but it was recently brought to our attention that some records made available through the state comptroller’s new Open Connecticut website suggest otherwise.
Individual employee compensation records from three different agencies reveal the following:
State Employee #1 (Dept. of Mental Health and Addiction Services)

• Salary: $60,565
• Overtime: $177,953.96
• Longevity payments: $424
• Differential payments: $6,121.87

State Employee #2 (Department of Correction)

• Salary: $55,565
• Overtime: $116,132.37
• Longevity: $414
• Differential: $3,640
• Accumulated leave: $4,615.47
• Meal allowance: $3,816

State Employee #3 (Dept. of Public Safety)

• Salary: $94,575
• Overtime: $134,987
• Longevity: $459
• Differential: $2,202
• Meal allowance: $7579

This is not to say that these employees did not deserve the pay they received, but it should raise questions about how the departments and their payrolls are being managed. 
What’s more, under current rules, those hefty overtime payments will be part of the equation when figuring the employees’ retirement pensions.
From these snapshots, it’s not difficult to imagine why Connecticut’s per-taxpayer obligation for state retiree pensions is the highest in the U.S., at $9,876.06.*
Are we really using taxpayer dollars as effectively as possible?
*Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis review of state consolidated financial reports and actuarial reports for most recent year available.