(former) Greenwich resident

Oh, Great. Guess who's coming for another bite of Greenwich taxpayer?
Connecticut Pension funds scandalously underfunded

[State Treasurer Denise Nappier] didn't quite say it, but taxpayers should be more than worried; they should be freaking out. For even before the market crash the state pension fund did not have enough investment to meet its commitments, pension underfunding being a chronic scandal in Connecticut, most other states, and the federal government. And should the pension fund not cover those commitments, they would have to be met from the state's general fund, which would mean more taxes.

The pensions enjoyed by Connecticut's public employees -- pensions called defined-benefit plans, plans that pay a fixed level of benefits, a level long known in advance -- are lavish and a glaring manifestation of the disconnect between the government class and the working class. For most working-class people long ago were left to fend for themselves [empasis added] with 401(k) and individual retirement account pension savings plans, plans that guarantee no benefits at all, plans whose benefits vary with their investment success. When markets fall, as they are falling now, the working class, unlike the government class, does worry about its retirement, and then has to worry again as part of the taxpaying class, even as public employees need not worry.

At her meeting with the legislators Treasurer Nappier disclosed that there is even more for Connecticut's taxpayers to worry about. That's because for what may have been the first time, state government recently was unable to refinance debt, about $400 million. While this problem was not peculiar to Connecticut but rather a matter of the breakdown of the credit markets nationally, it was still, as state Rep. Arthur O'Neill, R-Southbury, remarked, "really scary."

I don't often agree with our elected representatives, but I'd say "really scary" sums up the situation neatly.