Nobody will begrudge anything to plow drivers right now, but the blizzard disclosed a profound injustice in Connecticut.
When the governor closed non-emergency state government offices on Feb. 8 and 11, as roads and parking lots were not yet prepared for normal traffic, state employees were paid not to work. But private-sector businesses that could not open and employees whose businesses stay closed or who could not get to work lost substantial income.
That is, only government’s own employees were held harmless against the storm. The people who pay those employees just suffered another blow. And of course what calls itself Connecticut’s Working Families Party had nothing to say about this injustice, as the party is just a front for the coddled public employee unions.
The governor might benefit from more sensitivity about such issues. Explaining his new state budget proposal last week, he boasted about appropriating the funds necessary to push the state employee pension fund toward solvency. As they lack pensions themselves even as they pay for the defined-benefit pensions state employees get, most taxpayers may not be too impressed by this aspect of the budget and may wonder why their own IRA and 401(k) retirement savings plans aren’t good enough for state employees too.
Chris Powell is managing editor of the Journal Inquirer in Manchester.