State Worker Unions Urge Investment in Public Services

The need for Connecticut to abandon austerity budgets and instead invest in human needs and the workers who deliver those services was sharply argued this week as the coalition of state workers' unions (SEBAC) released a report “Austerity Versus Reinvestment – A Road Map for a Broad Based Connecticut Economic Recovery.” https://www.ctstateemployees.org/system/files/ct_austerity_report_final.pdf

 

The State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) report outlines the need for strong investment in public services and examines the economic and historical data that show investment in public services and workers is the way toward a strong economic recovery coming out of the CPVOD-19 pandemic.

 

“Now is not the time to continue cutting state services to the bone, because that would mean continuing to accept the unacceptable. Rather, we must protect and expand state services in order to meet the extraordinary level of human need in Connecticut today,” says the report authored by In The Public Interest's Shahrzad Habibi, Research and Policy Director and Yale University's Jennifer Klein, Professor of History. 

 

“Our state is at a crossroads,” emphasized SEBAC. “We can choose the path of austerity, which puts more money in the pockets of the ultra-wealthy while the middle and working class continue to struggle and Connecticut’s historic levels of income and wealth inequality continue to grow. Or Connecticut can choose the path of reinvestment that will create opportunities for our state’s most vulnerable residents, lifting them out of poverty and disadvantage, and thereby improving the health of Connecticut’s economy for everyone.”

 

The state workers pointed out that “elected leaders should learn from past recessions and choose the avenue of reinvestment to guarantee a recovery that is truly for all people - Black, white and Brown.”

 

The report detailed both economic and racial inequalities in Connecticut including unemployment, poverty and health. “Black residents in the state are 2.5 times more likely to die from a coronavirus infection than whites and for Hispanic residents, the rate is 67 percent higher than for white” 

 

Quoting New Haven-based DataHaven the report emphasizes “These disparities are concerning even outside of a pandemic. But as COVID-19 takes an especially sobering toll on already-disadvantaged communities, it becomes evident that systemic oppression based on race, language, poverty, and other socioeconomic factors has left some people more vulnerable than others.”

“While many states are waiting on financial assistance from the federal government, states must also raise new revenues to support increased public investment. Raising new revenues through progressive tax increases primarily on high-income households or corporations is a far better choice than cutting or stagnating spending, which is harmful to the growth of a state’s economy,” explained Shahrzad Habibi, Policy and Research Director, for In The Public Interest and report author.

“Even before the pandemic, it was quite clear we had significant vulnerabilities in our state, and they’ve only become more apparent since,” said State Senator Saud Anwar.

“The state has been part of the safety net that people depend on for their survival. Every part of the state’s help has been stretched at baseline and now it is overloaded. If you look at the important work being done in many of our state’s departments, state workers have done nothing short of heroic work, but have also been overstretched and maximized their potential.” Anwar concluded.

The report indicates that “as many Connecticut residents struggle to make ends meet, high-income individuals in the state actually significantly increased their wealth. Between mid-March and January 29, 2021, Connecticut billionaires had increased their net worth by $3.8 billion.”

“The austerity script is a trap. It not only has diminished our imagination and ingenuity but people’s health and life chances,” described Yale University Professor of History and report author Jennifer Klein,

“Public institutions are not luxuries; they contribute to the many ways in which we thrive. A public budget should focus on what makes lives of human dignity and human flourishing possible. Surely people of all classes benefit from well-functioning, properly staffed state offices, state inspections, tended and clean state parks, safe care facilities, and cutting-edge research and education from the state universities.” she said.