Something remarkable happened last week. Our state legislature passed a by bipartisan balanced budget. Something even more remarkable happened afterwards. Our Governor said he would veto the budget bill. Really?
Our state has been with a budget since July 1st. The Democrats, who control the house, have been unable to secure enough votes for their own budget and so one was never brought forward. At the same time the Republicans put together their own budget, one that restores funding for core services to our neediest and most vulnerable residents without raising taxes. The only problem is the Democrats would not allow it to be brought up for a vote, until last week.
In something that, at times, resembled a Shakespearian tragedy the legislature was called into session last week in the hopes the Democrats would put their bill that they negotiated with the Governor up for a vote. This was a bad bill. It would have raised personal income tax, cell phone tax and a slew of others totally $1.53 billion. Ouch! That would certainly affect every one of us here in Greenwich.
Where the stumbling almost became comical last week is the manner in which the democratic leaders called committee meetings, even a session only to be cancelled without warning. The worst was the House being called into session at 11:00am on Thursday only to be told at 11:30pm it was cancelled and to come back Friday at 5:00pm. By that time enough moderate democrats had had enough of their leadership’s, well, lack of leadership. By the time Friday dawned change was in the air.
It started slowly in the Senate. A group of moderate Democratic Senators displayed courage not recently seen in the chamber. Breaking with their leadership they talked about the virtues displayed in the movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and then displayed those very same virtues when they announced they would vote in favor of the Republican initiated budget. It was a welcome and refreshing sight. The budget passed 21 to 15.
From there the budget moved to the House. The Democratic Speaker of the House, having no alternative since he could bring forward Democratic bill called for debate and a vote. At approximate 3:15am Saturday morning it passed the House with four democrats siding with the republicans for a 76 to 75 result. Now the Governor want to veto it. Why?
Why, when you have tried for months to bring forward a budget from within your own party and failed would you punish the residents of Connecticut further? Come October 1st, municipalities will see dramatic cuts in state funding without a budget. No one is quite sure what that will look like. Mr. Governor, are you so thinned skinned that because this is not a budget you put forward, but one that did pass both chambers, you will further put our state into financial disarray?
We feel the Governor should sign the bill without delay. He should then immediately turn his attention back to growing our state’s economy. During all of the Governor’s shenanigans Alexion Pharmaceuticals of New Haven announced it was leaving the state for Boston. It is of note because Governor Malloy recently gave them $26 million in direct aid to remain in the state and grow their presence. Oops! Hopefully that money will be repaid. We are not going to hold our breath just yet. In the meantime, serious attention needs to be paid to improving our business climate so that businesses actually want to move here.
Our Governor in his threat to veto the bipartisan balanced budget just passed has asked for the “courage to compromise” in negotiating a new budget. He does this as he knowingly takes our entire state over a fiscal cliff on October 1st. Here is our advice to the Governor, be a “profile in courage” and sign the bill.
