By Edward Dadakis
Sentinel Columnist
GE hasn’t finished packing their bags in their move to Boston, and already other companies are talking about moving due to Connecticut’s high regulation, unreasonable taxation and bleak future.
Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini, whose firm has about 6,000 Connecticut employees, recently told analysts that Aetna was only committed to one community, Louisville, as in Louisville, Kentucky, not Louisville, Connecticut. Many will recall that, last year, Aetna joined with GE in the outcry opposing massive tax increases, and in sensing that Connecticut’s governing class simply doesn’t get it.
Democrats are reeling from these events and what has become the pervasive knowledge statewide that they created this disastrous fiscal mess. Trying to deflect accountability, Democrat Senate President Pro-Tempore Martin “Looney Tunes” Looney lashed out at Republicans, blaming them for this situation declaring they are the party of “no.”
Say what!? Democrats have had a stranglehold on the state legislature for over two decades and controlled the governor’s office for the past six years. Even with a Republican governor, for many years Democrats enjoyed a veto-proof legislative majority, effectively giving them complete control.
What did they do with that absolute power? They bestowed taxpayer-financed gifts to their favorite constituencies, including unions and teachers, while putting Connecticut finances into a death spiral. Now they are saying Republicans are to blame because they say “no.”
Looney Tunes is right about that. Republicans have been screaming “no” at the top of their lungs for years while offering intelligent alternatives to put Connecticut on a trajectory toward fiscal health. Democrats ignored them and, along with Democrat Governor Dan Malloy, implemented all their crazy, irresponsible ideas as they exercised their absolute power. The turkeys have come home to roost (no insult intended to turkeys).
You know things are pretty bad in Connecticut if Democrats actually understand the gravity. In fact, some believe Dan Malloy may have gotten religion based on his conciliatory tone in his state-of-the-state message. Some even said he sounded like a Republican. He was actually quoted as saying: “This budget is based not on how much we want to spend, but how much money we actually have to spend… require[ing]… decisions to keep government living within its means.”
But Malloy’s insincerity was on full display when he proposed a tighter constitutional spending cap. This is true Malloy chutzpah. It is Malloy and his fellow Democrats who have looked for every possible angle to violate the constitutional spending cap, which was co-authored by Greenwich’s own Senator Bill Nickerson and ratified by voters. If Democrats had respected the spending cap Connecticut would be in much better shape today. A tighter spending cap isn’t needed; what is needed is for Democrats to obey the existing law and stop inventing ways around it.
Does Malloy’s speech signal a new direction, with real action to reduce spending and rein in employee costs? Or was it just another one of his grandstand plays? Remember last year, in that same speech, he said no tax increases, but when legislative Democrats insisted, he caved instantly. Malloy has shown in the past that you can’t trust his word. In 2010 he promised a tax increase only as a last resort, yet did it almost immediately upon taking office. He has never gotten the savings out of the unions that he promised in return for those tax hikes. I could go on and on, but you get the idea.
Like it or not, we are stuck with Malloy and the legislative Democrats. Have they really changed, or are they just posturing? People will be watching to see if they produce anything more than rhetoric and blame. I’m skeptical, but I hope I am wrong, for the very future of Connecticut is at stake.
Edward Dadakis, a lifelong Greenwich resident, has served more then 35 years on the RTM, having been first elected as one of its youngest members. He is a former chairman of the Greenwich Republican Party and currently represents our 36th Senatorial District on the Connecticut Republican State Central Committee.
