Where’s the common sense with the state budget proposals being proposed by Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the Democrats? A solution that axes an estimated $8.7 billion budget deficit over the next two years and balances the state budget that is affordable isn’t a contest about who is politically right.
It’s about getting it right.
Rell has proposed to slash meaningful programs that help those most in need in our state. If you are deaf, blind, disabled, a former inmate, an addict, or an impoverished child, Rell has thrown you under the bus.
After all, many members of that constituency can’t or don’t vote. They belong to a group that many in the business community don’t come in contact with. They are “the others,” invisible to many in mainstream society. They simply don’t count for much to the countless struggling taxpayers caught up in their own economic survival, so the political heat is likely to be temporary.
However, it’s not the right thing to do.
The same goes for slashing nearly every work force program in the budget. The more people who get back to work, the better our state’s economy will be. Cutting the state’s work force programs will only hurt the state in the long run.
And then there’s the Democratic lawmakers’ longtime mantra of increasing taxes on the corporations to fund the programs for those in need. As a political party, it’s difficult not to perceive that they have long characterized corporations as the bad guys who don’t pay their fair share and should pay more for the state’s social service programs.
That’s not the right thing to do, either.
But there are areas where the two sides don’t appear to be far apart and could reach a consensus. One is the debate over the state’s film tax credit, which encourages filmmakers to work in the state.
Rell’s proposal to cap the program at $30 million has drawn criticism from proponents of the program, including those who are working to bring a movie studio to South Windsor.
Additionally, a nonprofit child advocacy group has released a state financial analysis that suggests the program has been unsuccessful in boosting the state’s economy on a level that was envisioned.
The proponents — including a number of Democrats in the legislature and former party leader James Amman — are standing behind the film tax credit plan and oppose the governor’s proposal to cap the credits.
This case illustrates how Rell and the Democrats can — and should — work together to tweak the program to make it provide a real economic stimulus to the state.
So here’s the rub: there isn’t enough money in the state budget to pay for what is needed, nor will increasing taxes or cutting effective programs improve the state’s economy or position it better for the future. High business taxes create a state where it’s too expensive to do business. Axing all of the effective social service programs only increase the social needs in the future and impair the quality of the state’s future work force.
The solution is to step back and think innovatively about the duplication of state programs, ineffective programs and ways to reduce the state’s long-term structural deficit while putting in place programs that effectively set up the state’s work force for success.
To execute such a plan requires bipartisan agreement on the state’s programs that aren’t effective and wasteful, even if those decisions aren’t politically popular. Lawmakers would not be soft on crime if they decriminalized some felonies and mandatory incarceration programs where stiff fines or wage garnishment wouldn’t cost taxpayers money while serving as a costly deterrent to the offender.
The answers to the state’s budget crisis must consider the state’s future needs and not rest primarily on the backs of corporate Connecticut or the deaf, blind, poor and disabled.
