Republican lawmakers say Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is overusing the state’s credit card.
So when it came time to vote on nearly $400 million in new borrowing at a recent State Bond Commission meeting, it stands to reason Republicans wouldn’t approve the funds, right?
Think again.
The commission’s two GOP members — Rep. Vincent Candelora (North Branford) and Sen. Scott Frantz (Greenwich) — didn’t oppose funding for a single project. About $395.5 million was earmarked for dozens of projects including $31 million for a Bass Pro Shops in Bridgeport.
The episode is a stark reminder of what’s wrong with government. It’s easy for politicians to take a verbal stance against the state’s borrowing habits. But to actually cut off the money spigot — that’s a different story entirely.
After all, who wants to block funding for a new school or stem cell research? That upsets voters and other lawmakers who represent the district where that money was headed.
The result: Connecticut’s debt load continues to grow.
After that Sept. 27 bond commission meeting, Sen. Minority Leader John McKinney — an ardent critic of Malloy’s borrowing habits, who plans to run for governor in 2014 — told CT News Junkie it wasn’t hypocritical for Republicans to approve the funding.
“This isn’t about any one project” McKinney said. “This is about our overall level of borrowing and the priorities you make.”
McKinney’s defense is flawed. If reigning in borrowing is not about any one project, it’ll be impossible for lawmakers to prioritize where the state spends its limited resources.
Every project financed with Connecticut’s credit card should matter, and get tough, judicious legislative oversight.
It requires hard work and tough decisions. And it means not allocating money to every pet project desired by individual lawmakers.
Meanwhile, Malloy dismissed Republican criticism, arguing the state has less bonded debt today ($19.76 billion) than it did the month before he was sworn into office ($19.97 billion).
Malloy’s math may be accurate, but he’s on the verge of breaking his own promise not to bond more than $1.8 billion this year.
It’s early October, and the state’s credit card is only $20 million shy of Malloy’s self-imposed limit.
At the same time, a recent Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis report said the state was bonding at such a rapid pace, there was a backlog of about $6 billion in approved funds that haven’t been distributed.
The low-interest rate environment makes it an attractive time to borrow money, but the state’s addiction to debt poses a long-term threat to the economy.
Just last week, Fitch ratings agency assigned a negative outlook (and a strong ‘AA’ rating) to $900 million in Connecticut general obligation bonds, warning the recently enacted state budget “delays repayment of deficit borrowing, adds to an already high debt load, and fails to rebuild the state’s financial cushion.”
It’s time for policymakers to have an open and public discussion about how much debt Connecticut taxpayers should be asked shoulder. Then they need to stick to their limits, even if it means not funding every legislator’s pork barrel project.
