🔒Lamont, Democrats avoid major harm

“First, do no harm.”

It’s the famed Hippocratic Oath that medical students know well as they pursue a career in medicine. But just about everyone else knows what it means as well, including elected officials. 

While it might be a low bar to set for a legislative session, those of us who’ve served in or watched government operate over the years know there have been times when governors and legislatures in fact did do a lot of harm.

So let’s start there: Did Gov. Ned Lamont and state lawmakers do any real harm this session?  Thankfully, they did not. 

Let’s remember, the potential for disaster was there when the session convened in January. You had a new governor and many new lawmakers with no government experience, a looming budget deficit in excess of $3 billion, and some big, thorny issues on the table, including tolls, recreational marijuana, and several gaming-related issues.

It’s fair to say the new administration got off to a rocky start. Then, in the weeks following Lamont’s budget speech in mid-February, things got kind of quiet at the state Capitol.  Although a lot was happening behind closed doors, not much was happening publicly, other than the governor getting knocked around quite a bit, especially on tolls. 

And it didn’t seem like any real progress was being made on any of the big issues. 

And then the inevitable happened: government observers began judging the new administration to be a failure. Words like “struggling,” “directionless,” and “confused” started appearing in news stories and columns.

As is often the case in political campaigns, when early polls lead people to prematurely predict outcomes, people began to predict what the final result would be when the dust settled on the 2019 legislative session. And most of those predictions weren’t good.

But then the administration began to claw its way back. Having inadvertently lowered expectations, Lamont and Democrats in the legislature began to put points on the board. Bills started to move, compromises on some big issues began to be realized, and no major disasters occurred.

So, where did we end up?

First and foremost, give Lamont and Democrats in the legislature credit: They produced a balanced budget on time, and averted any major tax increases. It’s far from a perfect budget, but it holds the line on spending, doesn’t raid the rainy day fund, spares cities and towns any major cuts in funding, and makes some important investments in local education. 

Does it solve our No. 1 long-term problem?  No, it doesn’t.  Our massive, unfunded liabilities are still there, and they’re going to continue to hold us back until we figure out a smart, permanent solution.

There were some other important wins on issues that many Democrats and Lamont campaigned on, including the minimum wage and paid family leave. 

On a host of other important issues that didn’t get as much attention, there were also some wins. Those with mental-health and substance-abuse issues, first responders suffering from PTSD, members of the LGBTQ community, community college students — good things happened for all of them. 

Who lost? The small business community, people who own mansions, those who believe the teaching of climate change should be mandated in schools, pro-choice advocates and those who believe that religious exemptions from vaccines have caused a public health crisis. All of these groups took some kind of hit.

What about the other big issues? Well, first, there were no major losses. Tolls were put off for later, as was recreational marijuana and gaming.

For those who thought the administration and legislature needed to address those issues — myself included — it’s fair to say we probably all agree that punting them to a special session, or to next year, was a better way to go than to see them get voted down. 

If any of them had come up and been voted down, it might’ve been the end of the road for a while.

As Sun Tzu once said, “He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.”

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 former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.