Democratic leaders in the state House of Representatives refused to consider two key proposals by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's affecting collective bargaining with state employees -- to freeze employees' controversial "longevity payments," and to cut overtime pay out of the calculation of state employees' pensions.
The Senate shortly after 8:30 p.m. voted 30-6 to approve a bill that would accomplish Malloy's requested changes concerning the pension calculations and longevity payments - but House Speaker Christopher Donovan, D-Meriden, had said earlier Thursday: "We're not going to bring [it] up here today."
The failure of those two Malloy proposals affecting organized labor came hours after leaders of both the Senate and the House rebuffed two other major Malloy proposals - to expand his ability to privatize state services now performed by employees who would be laid off, and to reduce the number of accrued sick days that an employee gets annually from 15 down to 10.
Instead, Donovan said, the House planned later Thursday night to pass a bill increasing Malloy's power to make the necessary budget "rescissions," or cuts, to close a projected $1.6-billion budget gap over the next two-year fiscal period, which begins Friday.
