The current legislative session in Hartford is scheduled to end in two weeks. What began with much promise, after last year’s elections transformed the make-up of our state government, now has devolved into sluggish meandering until the final gavel at midnight on June 5th.
What were the promises of the newly elected Governor and legislature? A balanced budget, no income tax increase, tolls and a reduction in government spending, to name a few of the more salient campaign promises.
Each one of these issues has morphed into an unrecognizable amalgamation of the clear and decisive platitudes made on the campaign trail.
The issue of tolls has sucked all of the oxygen out of the room. (For the record, The Greenwich Sentinel in not in favor of tolls.) However, even we are surprised by how what should have been an easy vote for the Democrat-controlled legislature to pass has been moved off the table to be taken up in a special session later this summer.
The lack of specifics in the proposed toll legislation has created a vacuum that opponents have been able to drive a….well…eighteen-wheeler through. The legislation focuses on revenue generation without addressing congestion mitigation and other issues that the Federal Highway Administration mandates must be addressed in order for tolls to be approved.
We heard early on the desire for a balanced budget to be completed before the scheduled adjournment in early June. We also learned of the Governor’s proposal to broaden the sales tax and impose new levies on everything from sugary drinks, to haircuts to newspapers.
The progressive members of the Governor’s own party have said these regressive taxes are unfair to the middle and lower classes of our society. Instead, they suggest households that earn more than $500,000 per year pay an extra 1 percent of their earnings to the state.
In fact, that is not even the worst of it. The Progressive Caucus of the House has over 40 members out of 91 house Democrats. In addition to the above 1 percent for those earning $500,000, they have proposed that if you earn over $1,000,000 you would pay an additional 2 percent, and if you earned over $5,000,000, you would an addition 3 percent, or 9.9 percent income tax. Not only does that sound like a new income tax to us, but also an invitation to move out of Connecticut and quickly.
As if it’s not hard enough to hear about the new taxes and opaque toll proposals, what leaves us scratching our heads is trying to find the Governor and legislature’s proposals to reduce state spending. Where are they? We have seen no significant proposals to reduce government spending. In fact, just the opposite. Every union contract that has gone through the legislature has been ratified without so much as a question by the Democratic majority.
There is no debate that our state’s finances and infrastructure are in a pitiful state. What has been decades in the making cannot be undone in a single legislative session. The lack of any discernible movement forward on our state’s finances, however, is extremely troubling.
It seems to us that the Democratic party, with majorities in the house and senate and control of the Governor’s mansion, had an opportunity to move its agenda forward swiftly with a united front. Instead, the majority leadership in the legislature and the Governor’s office seem to be at logger heads on what their policy priorities should be, and even, when they do agree, how to move them forward.
The question for us is, what is happening in Hartford?
At the moment, it looks as though, instead of enacting meaningful legislation to fix our state’s financial and infrastructure woes, they are kicking the can down the road. At least until a special session… for now.
