Believes agreement
has little substance and will result in minimal savings
for the state
State Senator Kevin Witkos, R-Canton,
today said that the $700 million concession package
that state employees agreed to last week and the State
Senate ratified today will do little to provide the
state with the substantial savings necessary to alleviate
its current budget deficit. Sen. Witkos said that while
the agreement sounds attractive on its face, it has
the potential to handcuff state finances for the next
two years. He said he could not vote in favor of the
agreement when the state is facing a budget shortfall
of over $8 billion over that time.
“The state is now locked into this agreement for
the next two years. We don’t know what the economy
is going to be like a month from now, let alone the
next two years,” said Sen. Witkos.
“If we want to shrink the size of state government,
this agreement reduces our options enormously.”
Sen. Witkos stressed that this agreement sends the
wrong message to residents and businesses alike who
are struggling to make ends meet. He said that no business
would agree to a two-year no layoff provision during
this economic downturn.
In addition, Sen. Witkos said that he is equally troubled
by the healthcare aspect of the agreement. He said that
increasing prescription co-pays from $3 to $5 for generic
prescriptions, and from $6 to $10 for brand name drugs
is too little. “I don’t think you would
find anyone in the private sector that comes close to
paying those increases,” said Sen. Witkos.
“We expect people on welfare to pay nearly the
same in co-pays and that is just not right.”
Sen. Witkos also said he thought it was unfair that
new state employees would be responsible paying for
the benefits of retirees. In fact under the agreement,
new employees and only new employees will have 3% of
their salaries go towards the retirement benefits of
retirees until they reach 10 years of service. In addition,
certain preventive care co-pays will be decreased by
67%.
“We are talking about a budget deficit in excess
of $ 8 billion and in these tough economic times 30%
of our budget is now off the table. I think we could
have done better,” said Sen. Witkos.
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