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| Occhiogrosso and Malloy |
Many people in Connecticut, almost certainly a majority, do
not want tolls. On May 9, No Tolls Connecticut delivered to the governor’s
office a “No Tolls” petition signed by 100,000 people.
Candidate for governor Ned Lamont said during his campaign
he would favor tolls only if people outside the state, truck drivers mostly,
would be depositing their mites in Connecticut’s revenue collection basket. He
said this several times while the TV cameras were rolling. Later Lamont changed
his mind, always the prerogative of pretty women and ambitious politicians. But
Lamont’s reversal – which came shortly after he had won his gubernatorial
campaign – could not be justified as a “misspeak.” He could have used the
services of a good narrative builder right there, but Roy Occhiogrosso, former
Governor Dan Malloy’s flack catcher and narrative builder perhaps was busy hauling
in the dollars from his other clients.
According to Occhiogrosso’s Global Strategy Group bio, “Roy
returned to GSG – where he was a partner from 2003 to 2010 – in 2013, after
serving for two years as senior adviser and chief strategist to Connecticut
Governor Dan Malloy. Roy believes that, at some level, everything is about
communications. And that if you communicate proactively and properly – using
traditional and new media, and social media, internally and externally – you
can win your fights and avoid problems.”
Some elements of Occhiogrosso’s strategy on tolls have been activated
by Lamont, and no doubt Occhiogrosso will be able to spin some profit from the
toll contretemps. He is not alone in supposing that a well-constructed
narrative – the bulk of American politics these days is narration, story
building – can overcome not only populist opposition but reality itself.
Joining the tolls-are-good-for-you effort are, according to
Jon Lender’s piece in the Hartford Courant, Confidential
proposal by political consulting and lobbying firms would try to sell Lamont’s
toll plan to legislators, citizens, a number of Global
Strategy Group strategists. The group has produced a “23-page document,
entitled ‘Connecticut Campaign for Transportation, 2019 Legislative session,’”
that fell into Lender’s hands, and he publicized the private communique; it’s
what good investigative reporters do.
Part of the difficulty with tolling is that nearly everyone
in Connecticut understands a toll to be a consumer tax. And, to put it in blunt
non-narrative, populist terms, people in the state have had it up to their ears
with taxes. First there was the income tax -- necessary, people were told by
political narrators, to bring backward Connecticut into the 21st century.
Prior to the income tax, the state relied on consumption taxes, which were,
said the political narrators, regressive. Then Malloy – and Occhiogrosso – came
ambling down the road and increased both income taxes and consumption taxes to
pay off debts incurred by General Assembly politicians, mostly Democrats, who
had invested not a penny into the state employees’ seriously under-financed
pension fund for about 30 years after the fund had been created. Numerous
“lockbox” funds then were raided by the same cowardly politicians, the appropriated
loot dumped into the General Fund. Naturally, Malloy and company were forced to
raise taxes to pay off mounting debt. Malloy was followed by Lamont, a Weicker
protégé who called Weicker to ask the former governor how he had managed to get
an income tax through a then moderate Democrat opposition in the General
Assembly.
The 24 page secret communique suggests remedies to overcome mounting
and entirely predictable opposition to tolls, and there is reason to believe
that Lamont already has adopted some suggestions: “To overcome resistance, a
strategy would be developed ‘to drive legislative support for a tolling concept
that will maximize revenue while holding CT citizens as harmless as possible
(example: resident discount)… Convincing the legislature to vote for a
comprehensive tolling bill — one that includes trucks and cars, albeit with a
substantial discount for CT drivers, won’t be easy. Opponents have already
framed this in simple terms: ‘it’s another huge tax increase.’ In order to win
this fight we’re going to have to first reframe the debate — so that’s about
‘jobs and economic development,’ and not just another tax increase… ‘Government
Relations Tactics’ would include: showing legislators ‘how money earned via
tolls can significantly improve their specific districts — driving the
correlation between tolls and local improvements to infrastructure;
highlighting the ‘vs.’ factor by using ‘polling data to share statewide how CT
residents feel when you compare tolls to an increase in gas taxes, property
taxes, car taxes, etc.’ and providing ‘legislative leadership the necessary
political data to “whip” their caucuses’ into support for tolling.”
Getting an unpopular measure passed through the legislature
requires an almost religious faith in the power of deconstructing and
reconstructing emotion-based “narratives.” The palpable, ruinous consequences
of further tax increases can always be buried in a coffin of fanciful – and
costly – propaganda.
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