"The governor is out there making the tough decisions
to make Connecticut stronger in the short- and long-term,” said Mr. Puglia, “
and we don't believe any one party has a monopoly on good ideas. However, if
you have ideas, share them with the governor's office and with the
public — because we should have a free and open debate about our
future."
But the governor DOES believe that one party, his own,
should have a monopoly on good or bad budget ideas, and that is why, when entering office during his first term, Mr. Malloy made certain that there were no
Republicans at the budget negotiation table when he hammered out his first
budget. Mr. Puglia is new to his position, and so, having no personal recollection
of past events, he may be forgiven for having misdirected the media on the point.
It is indisputably true that Mr. Malloy was the prime mover
in the formation of his first budget; as such, HE no doubt will recall both the
absence of Republican leaders in the room while he was shaping his first budget
with union leaders and the extraordinary powers conferred on him by the
Democratic controlled General Assembly, information the governor might charitable have shared with his communications director.
The General Assembly first approved the governor’s budget; negotiations
were then opened between Mr. Malloy and SEBAC, a coalition of state unions,
which negotiations materially changed Mr. Malloy’s pre-approved budget; and
although a) no Republican fingerprints ever appeared on the budget during
closed door negotiations, and b) no one in Connecticut’s media was ever invited
to attend the secret budget negotiations, the re-altered budget was never
resubmitted for approval to the General Assembly, which is constitutionally
obligated to affirm final budgets. Does Mr. Malloy really believe that closed door
negotiations with the usual culprits – most especially the Democratic leaders
of the General Assembly -- ought to be publicly ventilated? Answer: He does
not.
Mr. Puglia, to be sure, could have no personal memory of
these events, all of which were widely reported in Connecticut’s media. If anyone
has budget ideas, Mr. Malloy announced through his communications director, those ideas ought to be shared with the public “because we should have a free and open debate about our future." Is Mr. Malloy here indicating repentance at
having in the past failed to include Republicans, the elected representatives
of a good many citizens, in forming the most important single piece of legislation
addressed during any fiscal year? Answer: He is not; he will not. Is he now willing
to share with the general public any and all pre-budget negotiations? Answer:
He is not willing to do so, and he has not in the past done so.
Though Mr. Puglia’s personal memory of events does not
include such telling details, Connecticut’s media has a fresh and more expansive memory of recent history; indeed news reports are, among other things, a mnemonic
record of events.
And so, when Mr. Malloy’s new media director stepped forward
to offer Mr. Malloy’s “take” on a Republican plea to be included in any and all
closed doors negotiations affecting budgets, there ought to have been a certain
amount of tittering in the room.
When – EVER in Connecticut history – has ANY governor thrown
open the doors to the media on budget negotiations that had not yet been approved
by the General Assembly? The answer is – never.
Mr. Malloy declined during his first term in office to
engage Republicans in serious closed door budget negotiations because he wished
to press forward his own solutions to budget deficits without being put to the bother of entertaining disturbing
ideas from Republicans that might have impeded his prearranged plans to
liquidate the deficit, the most important feature of which was the largest tax
increase in state history. Mr. Malloy could and did govern without Republican
participation because, for the first time since the colonial period in
Connecticut history, state government –
including the governor’s office, all the
state’s constitutional officers, all the members of Connecticut’s U.S.
Congressional delegation and both houses of the General Assembly –
had fallen into the hands of a single party. Mr. Malloy is the first governor
in Connecticut history who might truthfully boast – through his usual
mouthpiece, of course – “l’etat, c’est moi” (I am the state), a piece of
impudence attributed to Louis XIV of France, the “Sun King.”
In a “democratic” government controlled by a single party,
such pretensions are cloaked in false genuflections to a befuddled citizenry: OF
COURSE no single ruling party has a monopoly of power; and OF COURSE the
reigning power would like to conduct the public business in public -- if the
party might thus benefit by the subterfuge of a carefully hidden “open
government.”
Comments
As I read the Constitution the Governor is to execute what the legislature legislates. Wouldn't we expect the budget to come from open deliberation in the Assembly, and from thence to Dan's Desk? Comparing our Nutmeg Constitution to the Fundamental Orders, our original one,we notice that the latter doesn't refer to individuals and their rights, but to the community and its duties. Yet, we can't help but think that our Puritan forbears enjoyed far more open government than do we who have so many governmental "benefits." The Governor was just one of seven magistrates who all served one year terms. They didn't even have FOIA. Is there a necessary causal relation between unlimited government actively seeking abolition of all Nutmeg inequities and increasingly closed bureaucratic autocracy? There certainly seems to be a statistical correlation.
Speaking as a detractor of our Governor and his pusillanimous progressive Party, I'm happy that their colossal fraudulent fiscal sand castle is unquestionably theirs alone. I look forward to Dan's Big Speech of Explanation with almost as much anticipation as I do the Stupid Bowl, if not spring training. At this time of year we take entertainment wherever we find it.
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...well knowing where a people are gathered together the word of God requires that to maintain the peace and union of such a people there should be an orderly and decent Government established according to God, to order and dispose of the affairs of the people at all seasons as occasion shall require; do therefore associate and conjoin ourselves to be as one Public State or Commonwealth; and do for ourselves and our successors and such as shall be adjoined to us at any time hereafter, enter into Combination and Confederation together...
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The People of Connecticut acknowledging with gratitude, the good providence of God, in having permitted them to enjoy a free government; do, in order more effectually to define, secure, and perpetuate the liberties, rights and privileges which they have derived from their ancestors
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As the dimensions of last years budget shortfall are divulged by Governor Drib and Comptroller Drab, and revealed by the non-partisan OFA, we are increasingly impressed with the opacity of our budget process. And, it's also very difficult to understand what the Nutmeg Government actually does with $20 billion per year. Our historic gay Comptroller appears to be as dishonest as our historic dyslexic Governor. This, not withstanding Mr. Lembo's self-proclaimed reputation for "transparency." But, pay no attention to the Dem lies and distortions. It's time for Republicans to grow up and work together with the Party of Progressive Pukes to solve Connecticut's problems, "get things done" for its citizens and aliens (not necessarily in that order).
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Lembo, who reported a deficit projection of $89.4 million, did not reject the concerns raised by legislative analysts, but noted that the administration has a strong track record of meeting savings targets built into past budgets.
But legislative analysts, who finished their review of the governor’s latest cuts, concluded they only effectively saved the state about $20 million.
More importantly, OFA said the deficit actually stands at $182.3 million. That’s $7.7 million above the level that triggers a formal gubernatorial plan to balance the books, and $92 million worse than Lembo’s estimate.
http://ctmirror.org/2015/02/03/gop-says-lembo-played-politics-ignored-deficit-to-shield-malloy/
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Comptroller Lembo also serves as the chief fiscal guardian -- monitoring and reporting on the state's financial status, coordinating health care and payroll for hundreds of thousands of public employees and retirees, and administering the statewide electronic accounting system. He has been hailed by advocacy groups and the media as a "champion of transparency" for his efforts to promote public access to vital state financial information.