State comptroller candidate Sean Scanlon challenged Connecticut’s next governor and legislature this week to fully fund a pandemic bonus system for essential private-sector workers that appears short on funds.
Scanlon, a Democratic state representative from Guilford, said it’s become clear that the $30 million that legislators and Gov. Ned Lamont designated for the Premium Pay Program won’t provide the $1,000 bonuses many state officials promised.
“It’s clear we need more money,” Scanlon told the CT Mirror Monday. “We should find the necessary funding to meet people where they thought they should be.”
The program, approved by lawmakers and Lamont in early May, offers a $1,000 bonus to full-time essential workers who earn $100,000 or less. Those earning more than $100,000 but less than $150,000 are eligible for grants on a sliding scale, ranging as low as $200.
Part-timers — working less than 30 hours per week — can apply for a $500 grant.
But Lamont and lawmakers only budgeted $30 million for the program, despite warnings from labor advocates that this would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The program could not — by simple math — provide more than 30,000 bonuses of $1,000 each.
To make the dollars stretch, state officials stipulated that if demand exceeds resources, the state will reduce all grants proportionally.
In the first 19 days since the comptroller’s office launched the Premium Pay application portal, nearly 200,000 workers have requested applications — and more than 72,000 already have completed them.
And the application deadline doesn’t close until Oct. 1.
Ed Hawthorne, president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, praised Scanlon for recognizing that state officials need to deliver the full grants that were advertised — and not just a portion of them.
