🔒Can Lamont reinvent Connecticut?

In his recent State of the State speech, Gov. Ned Lamont said: “What I love about America is that in every generation we get a chance to reinvent ourselves, and every election gives us a fresh start. This is our chance to reinvent Connecticut, to think big and act boldly.”

Can Connecticut be reinvented?  Does it even need to be?

Well, for sure there are parts of Connecticut that need to be reinvented. Let's start with state government. Although Gov. Dannel P. Malloy reduced the size of state government by 13 percent and eliminated many outdated regulations, there's no question that the bureaucracy still needs a lot of work. 

Too many senior-level bureaucrats who are charged with implementing policy are reluctant to change. New ideas often scare or somehow offend them, and their attitude toward a new governor and new agency commissioners is, “I was here before you got here, I'll be here long after you're gone. So we'll do this my way.” 

If Lamont, his Chief Operating Officer Paul Mounds, and the new commissioners can change that mindset it will go a long way toward reinventing Connecticut.

Another thing about state government: Not everyone is always pulling in the same direction. Too often efforts by the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) are undermined by the “work” of other state agencies. There have been numerous examples over the past few years in which DECD invested in an industry or a company (like fuel cells), only to see that company or industry taken to task by another state agency. It's like one hand giveth, the other one taketh away. If we believe that job creation is job No. 1, then before a state agency goes after a company or an industry, it needs to check with DECD to understand where that company fits in to the future of Connecticut's economy.

Much has been made of Lamont's sunny optimism — he'll need that approach if he wants to reinvent Connecticut because while everyone says we need to “change,” what they really mean is “change someone else's stuff.” 

Just about every time Malloy tried to change something — small or large — he ran into opposition. Every program has a constituency, and they fight hard to beat back the change they say they want.  A good example of this is the concept of regionalism. For as long as I've been involved in government and politics — more years now than I care to say — everyone has said we need to move toward regionalism in a real way. 

Yet, not nearly as much progress has been made on this front as is necessary. The level of redundancy of services provided at the local level is absurd. However, every service that's provided has a constituency, and those constituencies are reluctant to give up even the tiniest pieces of their turf.  That's got to change.

One lesson I learned working in the Malloy administration: A governor is almost never as powerful and influential as he or she is in their first year in office. In his first year (2011), Malloy successfully pushed his entire legislative agenda through the General Assembly, and he proposed and convinced the legislature to pass a very tough budget. 

He negotiated a big, long-term deal to bring Jackson Laboratory to Connecticut; negotiated a historic labor agreement; and oversaw a bipartisan jobs bill. 

What big ideas and plans does Lamont have in mind? A real shake-up of state government? A massive infrastructure plan and a way to pay for it? An overhaul of our tax structure? A complete restructuring of our public pension system? A permanent “fix” to the structural budget deficits that have plagued Connecticut for a long time? 

We'll know soon enough.

Here's hoping Lamont uses year one to “think big and act boldly.”  He might not get that chance again.

Roy Occhiogrosso is the managing director of Global Strategy Group in Hartford, a public relations and research firm. He also served as a senior advisor to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.