A total of 378 retired state workers collected pensions of more than $100,000 in 2010 - with the highest at $263,047 - and 24 retirees received pension payments exceeding the governor's salary of $150,000, according to new figures posted by the nonprofit Yankee Institute for Public Policy on its website, www.CTSunlight.org.
The total of 378 pensions exceeding $100,000 was up from 175 in 2008, and 299 in 2009, according to statistics released Thursday to news organizations by the conservative-leaning think tank. The state made a total of $1.2 billion in pension payments to 43,070 beneficiaries in 2010, the institute said, basing its report on information it obtained from the state comptroller's office.
The institute's statement immediately provoked a sharp debate in the context of a state's budget crisis that has Malloy seeking $1 billion in savings and concessions from state employee unions in each of the next two years.
Fergus Cullen, executive director of the institute that has offices on the Trinity College campus, said the figures show that the state's pension system is outdated and too expensive, and needs to be reformed.
But a spokesman for state employee unions said Cullen is unfairly damning the pension system based on a list of elite etirees who receive several times what the vast majority of pensioners get.
Despite the eye-catching list of top pension recipients, the typical state retiree's pension is much lower. Dividing the total 2010 pension payments of $1,263,784,641 by the total number of beneficiaries - 43,070 - yields an average of $29,342 per recipient. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has said the average state retiree's pension is $26,000.
The institute did not release figures Thursday on what the typical pension is for the majority of the state's pension recipients, and the comptroller's office didn;t have that information immediately available, either. For example, there was no breakdown on what the typical pension is for retirees who worked for the state for 10, 20, or 30 years. All it takes is five years of service to collect a pension, once one reaches retirement age, and such small pensions would bring the average down.