The Connecticut legislative session ended Wednesday at midnight, as it is constitutionally mandated to do. In odd years, the legislature’s primary focus is supposed to be the budget.
So that everyone is clear: it has adjourned without passing a budget for our next fiscal year, which begins July 1. Really? What have they been doing since January?
Let’s look at the facts. The Senate is split evenly with 18 Democrats and 18 Republicans, the first time that has happened since the 1800’s. The Lt. Governor then breaks any ties, which happened often this year. The House is made up of 79 Democrats and 72 Republicans, the closest it has been in decades. Let’s add in that the state is $5 billion in the red over the next two years. That says to us that the Democrats and Republicans must work together to do what is best and right for our state. Is it happening? No, but not for lack of effort on the part of the Republicans and the governor. Incredibly, it is the Democrats in the legislature that have refused to come to the table, literally.
In February, Governor Malloy put forward his proposed budget. It was a tough one, with significant spending cuts to municipalities, including our own, and concessions from the unions. His own party balked at the budget and the fiscal reality it addressed. Fair enough. So they sharpened their pencils and created their own budget. The only problem was that they could not muster enough support for their budget within their own party, so it never made it out of committee.
The Republicans also put forward a budget. It was tough as well. However, it restored municipal funding and closed the budget gap without raising taxes. The Democrats did not like it and refused to even debate it. Never-the-less, Republicans put it forward for a vote in the full state senate. The vote split down party lines and was defeated in a tie by the Lt. Governor.
We have called for a bipartisan budget before. We have even called for a budget summit; bring in outside experts to get a clear view of our state’s finances. It is well past the time for business as usual. It is time for a trip to the wood shed. To adjourn without a budget, to fail to propose a budget or even allow debate, is an abdication of fiduciary responsibility.
True, a special session has been called to deal with the budget. But why can’t the legislature work together to create a bipartisan budget during the regular constitutionally mandated session? It is because there is a significant block of Democrats in the legislature who are unwilling to see the fiscal reality of our situation, want to increase spending, and want to increases taxes. We cannot tax ourselves out of this situation and we certainly should not be increasing spending.
We are not saying all Democrats in Hartford are acting so recklessly. Indeed, there are a growing number of Democrats, including our governor, who see our fiscal landscape for what it is and want to work in a bipartisan manner to fix it. We applaud these pragmatic legislators putting our state ahead of party politics. It is the fiscally negligent tax-and-spend Democrats who are literally holding our state hostage.
Our state is quaking from fiscal irresponsibility. We cannot go year to year without a sound financial foundation. People and businesses need to know that our state’s budgetary issues are being addressed with real solutions, not held together with Band-Aids, bubble gum and duct tape. It may seem childish to describe it as such, but this bloc of tax-and-spend legislators are acting childish and putting our entire state at risk.
It is not just us calling for a bipartisan budgetary solution. Every major media outlet in the state has editorialized on this topic and we have all come to the same conclusion: no more business as usual, no more tax and spend, no more kicking it down the road. We do not have much time left. A little time in the wood shed may bring clarity to those Democrats in the legislature who refuse to believe otherwise. The time to fix our state is now, before it’s too late. No more excuses.
