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Passing the buck

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In December 2014, as his first term came to an end, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said he would abandon his habit of pinning Connecticut’s problems on John G. Rowland and M. Jodi Rell, the Republican governors who led the Constitution State in the 16 years preceding the Malloy era. “At this point, four years into this, I own this stuff. What’s good, I deserve some credit for. What’s bad, I’ll get all the blame for anyway. I may as well claim I own it,” he asserted.

It was apparent some time ago that that statement was a lot of hot air, and Gov. Malloy still is willing to play what I’ve dubbed the “Blame Rowland/Rell” card. He did so most recently late last week, when he met with reporters to discuss the ever-dysfunctional state budget. Gov. Malloy mentioned the $406 million rainy day fund and in so doing, took a swipe at Mrs. Rell, his immediate predecessor. “You know what the amount in the rainy-day fund was when I became governor? Zero. A prior administration used $1.5 billion in rainy-day funds to avoid having to make the tough decisions that my administration had to make,” he said.

Presumably, Gov. Malloy mentioned Mrs. Rell to remind everyone of the difficult financial situation he inherited upon assuming office in 2011 and take some of the heat off himself as Connecticut’s “permanent fiscal crisis” – in the words of Malloy administration Budget Director Benjamin Barnes – continues unabated. That is pitiful.

While Mrs. Rell, Mr. Rowland and the Democratic-controlled legislature can credibly be blamed for the mess Gov. Malloy walked into, the current governor bears a sizable chunk of the blame for the fact it persists more than five years into his tenure.

State spending increased during each fiscal year of Gov. Malloy’s first term. Those budgets also were heavy on gimmicks, which candidate Malloy took a hard line against. They were crafted solely by the governor and Democratic legislative leaders. No Republicans voted for them. As I noted in my Dec. 4 post, Gov. Malloy and his inner circle took an especially nasty tone toward Republicans who dared to criticize their budgets. State finances were a mess when the governor’s first term ended in January 2015.

Things didn’t change much when it came time to construct a budget for the 2015-17 biennium. The budget Gov. Malloy and his Democratic friends approved last June 30 repeated many of the mistakes of the preceding four years. Republican lawmakers famously were kept out of negotiations and no one from the GOP side cast a yes vote.

This budget was in the red by mid-September, less than three months after it took effect. It supposedly was revised in December, but the most serious flaws remained. While Gov. Malloy listened to and worked with Republicans during the process of developing the budget fix, no Republicans voted for it, citing matters of principle. By mid-January, the revised budget was in disarray, too.

Clearly, Gov. Malloy and his allies are solely responsible for the budget decisions that were made over the past five years. With Connecticut’s finances still in dire straits, the governor cannot credibly blame the situation on Mrs. Rell, Mr. Rowland, legislative Republicans or anyone else. Accordingly, no one should put stock in his sad attempt to pass the buck for the mess. My guess is Gov. Malloy took this line to protect his political viability.

The present excuse-making is a far cry from candidate Malloy’s 2010 depiction of himself as a serious leader who would return competence to the governor’s office.


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