Gov. Dannel Malloy’s budget speech is still a few days off, but the chips are starting to fall. And so far the results are encouraging.
His call for merging the state university system, the community colleges and the Charter Oak online college is as logical as it is effective in cutting costs.
He stated the case well: “We need to get a lot of the bureaucracy out of the way and to flatten the management of these systems.”
Both are worthy goals and both will be fought by the entrenched interests.
Richard Balducci, acting chairman of the CSUS Board of Trustees, was politically savvy enough to remain noncommittal.
However, Mary Anne Cox, assistant chancellor of the community colleges, is quoted as saying: “Having been through two previous mergers we know that savings are limited when you do this … Any blending of organizations like this is difficult.” Yes, she’s the same official whose knee-jerk defense of the community college status quo appeared on our op-ed page last week.
Every bureaucracy comes with people who say, “Oh, we’ve tried that.” Usually they’re the ones who will lose ground.
Time will tell, but we’re betting Malloy’s pencil is sharper and his tolerance for resistance is lower than his predecessors. Change like this isn’t easy but it is necessary. And if it’s done well, it may result in better educational outcomes.
Pushing all these turf-conscious folks into the same structure with a single shared mission of creating education focused on job skills is going to make it tougher to play games about resources, planning and outcomes. That’s all good.
So is leaving UConn as a separate entity. Creating a first-class research university is a different task that requires different skills, structures and resources.
But a good recipe for consolidation in higher education may not serve as well in Malloy’s vision for a Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. The governor’s plan calls for folding in the Department of Public Utility Control. The result would be a mega-department that spans important and related specialties. Again, administrative savings and clearer lines of authority and responsibility are attractive.
The difference here is that the intersection of energy, environment and public utility regulation is often a combat zone. These specialties are natural adversaries and the best resolutions to their complex conflicts come when the battles are public.
What will be lost if this becomes an intramural sport? If the policy battles are staged in a closed conference room, will one side always hold an upper hand? And will the public be able to influence the outcome or will the legislature be hearing a single voice?
Our concern here is the potential loss of transparency. Unless one adopts the position that Connecticut’s policy should be to generate no power in-state, battles among these special interests must happen.
This one will be an interesting test of Malloy’s ability to build consensus across party lines and across interests. Republicans are already raising concerns about whether there is any savings in creating such a new super agency. They also are concerned that the energy and environmental interests will overwhelm the more industry-sensitive DPUC.
Meanwhile, across the aisle, Democrats want assurances that the environmentalists will continue to hold the upper hand. How that squares with the party’s populist sense that electric rates are too high will make good theater.
Naturally, the devil is in the details and we’ll mute our applause pending further information which may — or may not — come when Malloy unveils his budget plan. We hope we see the healthy savings that will validate the hard work and risk inherent in taking on this fight.
Malloy promised he’d be a man of action. So far he’s keeping his word.
