A Budget Solution

A Budget Solution

The past few weeks have been busy in Hartford with numerous public hearings on a variety of bills.  I’ve testified on matters, such as allowing middle school students to take on-line world language courses, implementing the constitutional requirements of our state spending cap, and improving pedestrian crosswalks.  The latter proposal stems from the tragic death of Jeffrey Spencer, a fifteen year old from East Haven who was killed crossing Route 80 when an ill timed crossing light did not provide enough time for him to cross the four lane roadway.  While DOT has fixed the crosswalk at this location, we must make sure such a tragedy does not occur again.  All of these bills and many others will be considered by various committees before they are hopefully referred to the Senate and House for a vote. In the midst of all of this action, I continue to redirect my column to the State’s budget.  Because I am ranking member of the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee, the budget is one of my primary focuses.  More importantly though, I write about it because I believe the media has failed to keep the public apprised of the situation.  Why is there little news on the subject while we continue to hear about the budgets of California, New York and New Jersey?  I don’t know.  Maybe it’s because their Governors and legislatures are making the tough decisions, thus generating the news.  Or maybe it’s because those states have better reporting requirements and the media is better able to get a handle on those states’ cash flows and budget problems.  Regardless of the reason, I believe it’s important for you to at least be kept informed with my comments. Last week, the Governor unveiled another Deficit Mitigation Plan.  By the Governor’s own admission, the Plan includes really ugly stuff.  She’s proposing many programmatic cuts that will be felt in tourism to healthcare.  She’s proposing to defer a $100 million payment to the state employees’ pension plan.  She’s proposing $40 million of cuts to municipal aide.  She’s moved over $200 million of our “rainy day” money that was allocated for the holes in FY 2011 to cover FY 2010, and she’s made additional cuts in FY 2011 in order to make up for taking these rainy day funds in that year.  It’s easy for any of us to criticize this plan.  Underfunding a pension is hardly good fiscal planning.  Raiding a savings account that you set aside for a different purpose does not make sense either.  Cutting municipal aide in the middle of a town’s budget planning process seems irresponsible.  Frankly, I don’t believe Governor Rell would disagree with my analysis either.  So why is she doing this?  I fear it’s because the Governor has no other choices left. We only have three months left in the 2010 budget cycle.  Our deficit is over $500 million.  We’ve known about a deficit for six months now, and the leadership in the legislature continues to just stare at it like a deer in headlights.  They have rejected proposals from the Governor and Republican minority time after time.  I’ve had increasing conversations will many democratic legislators in both the House and the Senate.  Privately, they’ve asked me for input on getting out of this deficit, and I’ve always offered them solutions.  As long as I’m your state representative, I will continue to work toward a solution for the betterment of our community and our state.  Yesterday, I met with a democratic colleague for over an hour to work through some budget solutions when it became abundantly clear how we solve the budget woes.  We need new leadership in the House and Senate and we need to start calling for a change today.  Because if they are not willing to make the tough choices and provide real solutions to our problems, they need to step aside and let those Democrats who want to solve the problems lead.