Horse Guards' Fate May Depend on Union Agreements

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's announcement about reaching an agreement with state employee union leaders might make Friday the 13th a lucky day for the First and Second Company Horse Guards, which are both hoping to stay in operation.

A fallback budget plan, Plan B, which Office of Policy Management Secretary Benjamin Barnes sent the governor on May 6, includes a recommendation "to eliminate both governor's horse guard" units, projected to yield savings of $289,618 for fiscal year 2011-12 and $283,002 for fiscal year 2012-13.

Juliet Manalan, Malloy's press secretary, stressed that the items listed in Plan B were options and that did not mean that the governor would make all of the proposed cuts listed, if it came to that.

“It could mean the Horse Guards [could get cut], but it might not necessarily," Manalan said before the governor's press conference on Friday afternoon.

Both the First Company in Avon and the Second Company in Newtown were rallying to stay open, proposing to raise whatever funds needed. The First Company celebrated the apparent restoration of full funding for both units on May 5 at a graduation for the horse-mounted search and rescue trainees, but it is not official yet what the future of either the First or Second company will be.

The union agreement means $1.6 billion in savings over the next two years for the state, but now it is up to union members to approve the plan.

State Sen. Kevin Witkos (R-17) said that he is not sure what Friday's announcement means for the Horse Guards, but he said that there are 15 collective bargaining units that the agreement incorporates. The union leaders will present the deal they endorsed to the union members, who will need some time to review the proposal, Witkos said. Union members will have the opportunity to vote on the plan, and Witkos predicted that the unions will vote in the next two weeks.

Barnes is preparing a plan for Malloy with options of how to bridge the $400 million gap to reach a balanced budget if the union agreement is approved. Manalan said that the details are being worked out, and it has not been confirmed whether Plan B is still on the table as an option if the unions do not approve the agreement.

"The remaining $400 million we need to balance this budget will come from a mix of additional spending cuts and existing budgeted revenues," Malloy said at the press conference. “Taxes will not rise beyond what is already in this budget."

In Barnes' letter to Malloy presenting Plan B, he wrote that the "list of options for potential inclusion in the plan required by the budget act" included $455 million in savings through 4,700 state layoffs and reductions in those employees' associated programs, as well as "$1.2 billion in other programmatic reductions," including "cuts to aid local governments" and state programs. In total, the options in Plan B reflected "$1.67 billion in reductions."

Manalan said Plan B is a last resort for Malloy.

Layoff letters sent last week are being rescinded and the state is holding off sending any more, Malloy told media at the press conference on Friday.

Malloy is constitutionally required to balance the budget by the start of the next fiscal year, July 1, Manalan said, and after settling union contracts, Malloy will present a bill to legislators with a plan for filling the gap in order to balance the budget.

He is waiting until the union members have time to review the proposal before releasing the specific details of the union agreement to the press. Malloy did say that, under the plan, savings "were achieved in the areas of health care and pension benefits, and wages," that no furlough days or reductions to the 40-hour work weeks were touched and that no state layoffs would happen over the next four years.