Tooker: Connecticut’s Pension Progress Is Real. Now Protect It.

Hartford set aside $813.7 million in guardrail revenue this year. Tooker proposes a Pension Accountability Standard so taxpayers can see what every exception costs.

WESTPORT, CT — Republican candidate for State Comptroller Jen Tooker today proposed two new reports from the Comptroller's office. The first would show taxpayers how much less money goes toward pension debt each time lawmakers make an exception to the state's fiscal guardrails, as they did with $813.7 million this year. The second would test, every year, whether the state employee pension plan can hold up through a market downturn or recession.

Connecticut’s State Employees’ Retirement System was 59.6% funded as of June 30, 2025, up from 36.9% in 2016, according to the legislature’s Office of Fiscal Analysis. Much of that improvement came from the fiscal guardrails, which have helped reduce pension debt by more than $11 billion.

“Connecticut did something hard here, and the people who made it happen, in both parties, deserve credit for it,” Tooker said. “The guardrails worked. When volatile money came in, the state used it to pay down debt instead of spending it. That discipline is exactly what got us here.”

This year, Hartford made an exception. The revised state budget, Public Act 26-68, raised the volatility cap by $813.7 million on a one-time basis and kept that money in the General Fund. Under the guardrails, volatile revenue above the cap goes to the Budget Reserve Fund and, once that fund is full, toward paying down long-term debt, primarily pensions. The Budget Reserve Fund was already full.

Comptroller Sean Scanlon has said the state’s budget caps “need to be adapted to meet the moment that we’re in.” The Office of Fiscal Analysis projects General Fund deficits in fiscal years 2028 through 2030, which Tooker said will only increase the pressure for more exceptions.

“Every exception comes with a reason. There is always a good cause and always a tight year,” Tooker said. “But pension debt doesn’t care about the reason. A dollar that doesn’t go to the pension fund this year is a dollar taxpayers pay later, with interest. If Connecticut is going to keep making exceptions, taxpayers should see the running total. How much did we set aside? What would it have saved? What does it cost five years from now?”

Tooker proposes a Pension Accountability Standard

As Comptroller, Tooker said she would make the state’s pension position a permanent, plain-English part of the Comptroller’s reporting:

• Count the cost of every exception. Each monthly financial report would show the pension payments the guardrails would have produced, the payments actually made, and a running total of any difference along with its estimated long-term cost.
• Stress-test the pension plan. Publish an annual stress test alongside the state employee pension valuation, showing what happens to funding and required contributions if investment returns fall short of the plan’s 6.9% assumption, if a recession hits or if the extra guardrail payments stop.
• Publish a Pension Scorecard. One page, every year: funded ratio, unfunded liability, required versus actual contributions and extra payments made or set aside, for the state plan and for the municipal retirement system that towns across Connecticut rely on.
• Set service standards for retirees. The Comptroller’s office administers pensions for more than 57,000 state retirees and beneficiaries. Publish processing times and any backlog every quarter, with targets the office is accountable for meeting.

“Every pension a state employee has earned will be paid. That is not in question,” Tooker said. “This is about making sure the money is there to pay it, and that taxpayers can see whether it is. If the plan is on track, prove it. If it’s slipping, say so early.”

Tooker said the approach reflects her career evaluating long-term financial risk in the reinsurance industry.

“Connecticut’s pension plan has beaten its investment assumption in recent years. That’s good news,” Tooker said. “In my business, the good years are exactly when you test what happens if they don’t continue. You don’t wait for the bad year to find out.”