Why is state government always short of money in the face of what are said to be compelling human needs?
One reason is that compelling human needs are easily confused with human wants, which are infinite.
Another reason is that state government is not at all careful with its money, especially when the recipients are its own employees, who are well organized by their union and constitute the army of Connecticut’s majority political party, the Democrats.
That’s the lesson the shocking report published last week by the Hearst Connecticut newspapers, written by reporters Jacqueline Rabe Thomas and Taylor Johnston.
The report focused on what it called the “curious” case of state Sen. Paul Cicarella, R-North Haven, who was working as a prison guard in 2008 when, breaking up a fight among prisoners, he slipped and injured his back. Doctors determined that while he had lost some back function, he remained able to do less strenuous work for state government. But no other state job was found for him.
So at age 27 Cicarella qualified for a lifelong disability pension even as he began work as a high school wrestling coach and private investigator. His disability pension was revoked when state government discovered he had found other work, but in 2021, just after Cicarella was elected senator, his pension was reinstated and increased by 84% for one year with retroactive payments. No one is explaining that.
The retroactive payments brought Cicarella’s 2022 pension to $412,000. Last year his disability pension was $66,000, on top of his other income, including his salary as senator.
