State senators, digging through Connecticut's budget for potential savings in the face of multi-billion dollar debt, say that slashing state employees' longevity bonuses would save as much as $40 million per year, cuts supported by Gov. Dannell P. Malloy.

It isn't the first time the idea of cutting the bonus has made its way through the Senate. A mitigation bill that included cutting bonuses for non-union workers passed the Senate last year, but failed to win House approval, said Derek Slap, spokesman for Senate President Donald Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn. Williams was instrumental in pushing the bill through the Senate and found little Republican support last year, Slap said.

"I don't think his position has changed and he not only supported it, but lead its passage last year," Slap said. "It's certainly an issue that the General Assembly is looking at and we're going to look at doing something like that again."

Two Democratic senators have revived interest in dropping the longevity benefit altogether, although Sen. Leonard A. Fasano, R-North Haven, said dealing with union contracts and the benefit will prove to be a much more difficult task than nonunion employee bonuses.

"Non-union can be done by legislation immediately, if the governor wants to," Fasano said. "Unions employees can be taken care of through concessions packages being negotiated now. We can pass a bill saying that no longer can union contracts offer longevity payments."

The amount paid out in bonuses varies from year to year, based on employees who reach the 10-, 15-, 20- and 25-year milestones. The expense is a consistent one that can be avoided by setting legislation that will preclude the benefit to new union employees, he said.

The bonuses are awarded each year in April and October. In the recent April 1 payout, 30,000 state employees received the benefit, costing the state $18 million from the General Fund and Special Transportation Fund, he said. On Oct. 1 of last year, 3,582 nonunion employees and 28,175 union employees were paid total bonuses of $19.7 million, Fasano said. Both union and non-union employees are paid bonuses equaling 2 percent of their salary after 10 years. After 15 years, it climbs to about 3 percent, and by 25 years of employment the bonus equals 5 percent of an employee's salary.

Senate Minority Leader John Mc Kinney, R-Fairfield, said he sent an open letter to government last month calling for the reductions and a renewed bill and expected strong opposition from unions during negotiations.

"He (Malloy) said he did not agree with the practice and said it would be an issue in his talks with unions," McKinney said. "He asked the legislature for a bill on his desk to stop the payments."

McKinney said non-union employees would have a legal claim if such a bill passed, cutting their bonuses, but it may be that the governor, in a financial emergency, would have the power to stop those payments.

Juliet Manalan, Malloy's press secretary, said the governor was already working on supporting cuts for the bonuses.

"Governor Malloy believes that the legislature should take up the issue of longevity payments for state workers," Manalan wrote in an e-mail Tuesday. "The specifics of any such bill would need to be worked out in the legislature, but suffice it to say that Governor Malloy believes this issue to be of such importance that he addressed it with his own staff months ago."

Robert Cyr reports for the Record Journal, Meriden.