The Final Implementer Bills & the Community Colleges
As you may know, the Governor and Legislature came to a final agreement on the state budget, following some disagreement over corporate taxes. Most of the savings that the final budget agreement produced came from reductions to bonding.
For the Community College system, we maintained our current funding (zero reduction) and we gave back $58,000 from our Worker Compensation fund. All the increases to our block grant held, which was approximately $16.7 million more than the Governor originally recommended in February.
Addressing Rumors About State Employee Concessions
The news media is reporting that General Assembly leadership and the Governor reached a budget agreement that assumes state employee concessions, in the form of a half percent reduction in raises, which would be negotiated for the 2016-17 fiscal year.
We have not agreed to any such reductions in wage increases nor have we had any discussions regarding this possibility. The budget that was approved contains a reduction in the "reserve for salary adjustment" line item in the budget.
The 4Cs and other state employee bargaining units are preparing to enter negotiations for successor agreements. In no way will a legislative decision to reduce the reserve for state employee salaries trump our authority. This line item reduction has no legal significance under the statutory factors guiding state negotiations and arbitration, and cannot be used as a tool to measure the employer's ability to pay.
The 4Cs and our allies will continue the fight for a state budget built on the foundation of a fairer and more balanced revenue stream that asks more from the privileged and less from working families. We have made progress on that front - for example, this year's budget raises taxes on the wealthy and big corporations.
The 4Cs Introduces Its New Logo
The 4Cs held a contest open to our members and Connecticut Community College students for a new logo. The winner of the Logo Contest was Sabin Shrestha, a design student at Tunxis. The new logo can be viewed in the header of the newsletter!
Sabin, originally from Nepal, plans to share the prize money with his family members still living in Nepal who were affected by the earthquake earlier this year.
From left to right: Ellen Benson (4Cs Communications Director), Sabin Shrestha (Winner of the Logo Contest), Robyn Brooks (4Cs Vice President for Part-Timers), and Bryan Bonina (4Cs President).