Connecticut state employee salaries increasing: Nearly 13,000 make six figures

At a time of low unemployment and booming budget surpluses, Connecticut state employees are earning record-breaking amounts of money.

The compensation increased last year to the level that more than 18,800 state employees were paid more than $100,000, according to the latest statistics from the state comptroller’s office.

Those numbers included bonuses of $3,500 per employee that were negotiated with Gov. Ned Lamont, along with overtime and retirement payments like accumulated sick time for employees who retired last year due to incentives related to their pensions, officials said.

Before overtime, more than 12,800 employees had base pay in 2022 of more than $100,000, officials said. The comptroller’s office cautioned that the number of employees earning at those levels could be even higher because the state computers sometimes have incomplete information on “limited scope agencies” like the University of Connecticut, as well as the judicial and legislative branches.

Overall, the state payroll in 2022 increased to $5.3 billion annually, a sharp increase from 2018 when the payroll was $4.5 billion, the comptroller’s office said.

House Republican leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford questioned whether the amount of compensation for state employees is sustainable in an uncertain economy with a volatile stock market and the recent failures of two regional banks. Many workers in the private sector, he said, suffered setbacks in recent years due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“The only institution that seems to have benefitted from inflation and COVID is government,” Candelora told the Courant in an interview. “Government has made out very well. I think Connecticut is starting to resemble more of an oligarchy than a democracy. If you’re lucky enough to get a golden ticket and be employed by government, you’re set for life. Meanwhile, the rest of the residents need to work for life in order to live in our state.”

While many private sector workers are paid well, others are still struggling with low wages and subpar benefits in a state that has become known for wealth inequality.

“There is a huge disconnect at this point with the private sector and government,” Candelora said. “At some point, it topples on itself. … How long can this go on? To me, it’s like a dog that’s eating its tail. At some point, it’s not going to work out so well.”

With additional federal money from the pandemic and huge Wall Street gains in 2021, the state has been running up record-breaking budget surpluses. The surplus last year reached $4.3 billion and is expected to reach another $1.3 billion in the current fiscal year that ends on June 30. With that money and more, the state has poured more than $7 billion into the pension funds for both state employees and public school teachers.

“We’re accumulating more money and putting 100% of that money into state workers, which is what we’ve done,” Candelora said. “All of our surpluses have gone into the pensions, which benefits them, as opposed to going back to taxpayers. It’s a problem. That’s why I’m grateful that the governor, at least on the back end, is trying to recognize it and reduce taxes. That’s what we should be having a conversation about — not about more government spending that seems to only benefit our state workers.”

Not enough employees

But Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney, a New Haven Democrat, said that state employee salaries are not the problem.

“I think our state payroll is less than it should be because we don’t have as many state employees as we need,” Looney said in an interview. “We’ve had a substantial decline in the state workforce in the last 10 or 15 years. We’re really understaffed. It’s true in DOT. It’s true in some other places. … So that’s our problem, not what people are making. We don’t have enough people working for the state.”

For years, state troopers have been saying that they are understaffed. The state police have fluctuated at times below 900 troopers, which is down from a peak of nearly 1,300 under Republican Gov M. Jodi Rell more than 15 years ago. The number of troopers constantly changes due to ongoing retirements and the number of newcomers being trained at any given moment in the police academy.

The state was required to have a minimum of 1,248 troopers under a state law that was created in 1998, but that law was later repealed in a budget implementation bill under then-Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

As salaries have increased, the number of employees has gone down.

Following various buyouts, certain positions have been refilled, but the overall number is down. An analysis by the governor’s budget office says there have been “four significant drops since 2009” in the executive branch among fulltime workers.

From a recent high of 32,000 fulltime employees in January 2009, the numbers had dropped to 24,183 by July 1, 2022, after changes in benefits for future retirees. The total went back up slightly by October 2022 to just under 25,000 — representing a drop of nearly 7,000 in less than 15 years.

Highest-paid employees

The highest-paid state employee in 2022 was former University of Connecticut basketball coach Kevin Ollie, who received a special payment of $11.15 million after arbitration in a long-running dispute with the university. He had been fired in March 2018, but still had three years and more than $10 million remaining on his contract at the time.

The second highest-paid employee was UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma at $3.795 million, followed by men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley at $3.1 million and football coach Jim Mora at $1.5 million. UConn Health neurobiology professor Li Wang won $1.4 million in an arbitration settlement, while faculty member and dermatologist Hao Feng was paid $1.3 million.

Overall, 37 other employees at UConn Health were paid more than $500,000 each, according to the statistics.

But university spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz said the highest-paid doctors generated millions in revenue.

“The five UConn Health faculty members who recently were listed among the top 10 earners for the past fiscal year collectively generated more than $20 million in 2022 in clinical care revenue for UConn Health — nearly quadruple their total combined salaries,” Reitz said. “From 2016 to 2022, these same five physicians collectively generated $60.7 million in clinical revenue, and overall, UConn Health’s 10 highest-paid faculty have brought in more than $140 million in clinical revenue in the same period. This revenue is critical to UConn Health, since about 50 percent of its revenues come from its clinical operation and state support accounts about 25 percent.”

UConn

As a major university, UConn has a higher payroll than any other state entity or department.

State statistics show that the top 15 highest-paid state employees all work at UConn, and 66 of the top 90 also work at UConn. The university has the highest total payroll of any state agency, including large departments like corrections and transportation, as well as the entire judicial branch, according to statistics from the comptroller.

The university generated headlines recently when top UConn officials and some legislators said that Lamont’s budget called for UConn to receive far less than had been expected. That clash prompted UConn’s president, Radenka Maric, to raise the issue of potentially preventing the highly successful men’s and women’s basketball teams from playing at the XL Center in downtown Hartford.

Legislators who vote on UConn’s budget are among the biggest fans of the games at the XL Center, though, and have been attending the games for many years.

But Lamont and House Speaker Matt Ritter of Hartford — a major UConn basketball fan — both said the team would not be leaving. Ritter described Maric’s comments as a “mistake,” adding that “all is forgiven” as the two sides move forward.

“They’re going to play at the XL Center,” Lamont said. “You’ve got a lot of UConn alumni all over the Greater Hartford area. That place is packed and thriving. We love to see UConn win, and that’s not going to change.”

After the dust-up, Maric told reporters that she has had “lovely conversations” with the governor and that there is “no change coming” in the short-term on the XL Center.

“I’m very sensitive that UConn playing in Hartford means a lot to the small businesses and all the fans and everybody in the community,” Maric said. “Our focus is to stay and play at XL.”

Medical school employee

UConn was criticized for continuing to pay a medical school professor, Dr. Pierluigi Bigazzi, for more than five months after his death at a time when none of his supervisors had spoken to him. A pathology professor for 40 years, Bigazzi was being paid $200,000 per year, but the university said he was a “self-directed” employee who had been working on the medical school’s curriculum. He worked at home before that practice became common during the coronavirus pandemic.

Bigazzi’s wife, Linda, was arrested and charged with murder after police entered the couple’s Burlington home and found Bigazzi’s decaying body wrapped in trash bags in the basement.

After authorities were unable to determine the exact date of his death, UConn and Bigazzi’s wife’s attorney agreed that she would repay more than $50,000 to cover the money deposited automatically into their joint bank account from August 4, 2017 to January 18, 2018.

The banking crisis and state revenue

With the state payroll rising, Candelora said the Republicans and Lamont wanted to extend the state’s fiscal guardrails for another 10 years to ensure that the spending, bonding, and “volatility” caps would prevent the legislature from spending too much money. Instead, the legislature voted to extend the caps only for another five years with a five-year renewal option that could be blocked by a legislative vote. He noted that the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition package on benefits also expires around that time on June 30, 2027.

Candelora argued that legislators need to be cautious at a time when the economy and the stock market can swing sharply and have a major impact on the state budget. His latest concern is the banking crisis that has spread from two regional banks to have wider impacts on the banking system.

“We’re in unchartered waters again,” Candelora said of the banking crisis. “There is an undercurrent of suffering — when you look at the increase of free and reduced lunches in schools and the increase of LIHEAP participation (for low-income heating assistance). We’re not going to be able to sustain all these social programs.”

Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com