Connecticut Needs a Budget

Governor: We need a budget!

In the essential business of government, budgeting shows where your true priorities are as a leader. How a government takes in revenue and from whom, and how our leaders choose to appropriate that money are huge questions; the answers to which will have profound impact on our state. One thing is clear: Budgeting is not a game of political football.

With that said, we as Connecticut citizens should be appalled and outraged by the irresponsible games being played by our Governor as we’ve just entered our second month into the new fiscal year without an adopted budget for the next biennium. Currently, Connecticut is one of three states that has still not adopted a state budget.

And make no mistake: indecision and the inability to lead have consequences. Right now, towns and cities across Connecticut have halted summer construction projects and long awaited improvements to infrastructure because no one knows how much funding they are going to get from the state. These are the very infrastructure projects meant to be funded by the federal stimulus package passed in January.

Not only that, Connecticut is getting perilously close to going the way of Illinois, which just last week had its bond rating downgraded by the Fitch bond rating firm on Wall Street. The chief reason cited by Fitch was the failure of the state of Illinois to enact a budget for the current fiscal year. The bond rating agency also said Illinois lawmakers and the governor are not willing to address structural holes in the budget, relying instead on one-time revenue gimmicks to plug current holes in the spending plan. A lower bond rating means millions more in higher borrowing costs for the state – a tab picked up by taxpayers because of a failure of leadership.

Yet when you look at the budget Governor Rell has proposed, you see the same thing. Too many one-time revenue gimmicks. Too many giveaways to multi-million dollar corporations while small businesses are squeezed for more taxes and fees. Seniors and low income families are asked to pay more for health coverage while the wealthiest individuals and corporations are not asked for a dime more in sacrifice. There is no investment in health care or reform to the tax code that will result in the kind of economic growth that will increase our revenue collections and erase our record budget deficits.

But the worst failure of all in this year’s budget process is that these latest proposals from the governor could have and should have been made 6 months ago. The half year of inaction and meaningless political rhetoric was only a delaying tactic until the governor could admit what all of us knew – that the fantasy of a $6 billion dollar deficit that could be erased without increasing taxes was a fallacy. Now, with towns, schools, and the Wall Street bond rating agencies watching, Governor Rell has finally admitted that our budget deficit is $8.6 Billion dollars – almost exactly the same amount as the non-partisan Office of Fiscal Analysis said it was in February. And yes, it is going to take some more revenue. We should not reward this dishonesty and irresponsibility with another term. Enough is enough. It’s time for new leadership in Hartford.

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