Gov. Ned Lamont on Thursday announced the first CEO of the Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Authority, a quasi-public agency that will run a new state system of paid family medical leave.
Incoming CEO Andrea Barton Reeves said she saw the impact of paid family leave time on vulnerable people in her previous jobs as a family lawyer and at HARC, a nonprofit that assists people with developmental disabilities.
Barton Reeves was asked if an already-approved half-a-percent tax on income would be enough to pay for the program.
“We will have to run some more actuarial models,” Barton Reeves said. “I am very confident that the way the statute was drafted, solvency was one of the highest and key priorities, so I am not concerned about the solvency of the program.”
Under the law that created the program, benefits would be cut if the tax revenue comes up short.
Lamont said the board that oversees the program was unanimous in its pick.
“You got to be really good, because nothing is unanimous around this building except for you!” Lamont told Barton Reeves at a Hartford news conference.
Barton Reeves, who lives in Windsor, will make $210,000 in her new position.
The paid leave authority will next seek bids from agencies and companies interested in administering the program.
