Here in the Land of Steady Habits, it’s a little jarring when familiar faces move on. Yet that’s the hand we’re dealt as two sports legends and the area’s most visible banker all move on to new roles.
UConn’s Maya Moore, a true student athlete and a great role model, swept every individual award in women’s basketball but came up just a little short of bringing another championship to Storrs. Now she’s the top pick of the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx. We expect to see much more of her than the team’s annual stop at Mohegan Sun arena.
The future is not as certain for UConn’s Kemba Walker, who went from good to great in an instant. At six-foot-one, he’s undersized in every way except heart and leadership. His defection from Storrs is one of those business decisions — he’ll never be as hot a commodity as he is after leading UConn to the national championship. But unlike Maya, he’s not likely to be the No. 1 pick. He’s going into a tough league and we wish him the best.
And then there’s Bill McGurk, the affable and chronically overexposed top dog at Rockville Bank. He’s turning over his CEO role but he’s been quite clear that he’s not leaving the stage. He’ll still be the public face of the bank he helped build. That’s as reassuring for the image as it is awkward as a business strategy. Bill Crawford does not seem the kind of guy who needs training wheels. At a recent charity roast of McGurk, a banner proclaimed “Old bankers never die, they just pass the buck.” It doesn’t feel like McGurk is even ready to go that far.
Let’s not regard any of these changes as a farewell. Rather, each leaves a huge set of footprints for others to follow. And we’ll be watching as they transition into their new roles.
That’s the natural progression of things, even in the Land of Steady Habits.
As the cataclysmic state budget debate gets closer, the sound of dissent is growing more shrill.
First, Dominion Generation, operator of the Millstone nuclear power plant, raised the specter of closing the plant — and laying off more than 1,000 workers — if the state goes ahead with the proposed tax on energy producers. That levy would raise $340 million, $322 million of it from Dominion.
Now, we’ve already expressed our opinion that the tax is a bad precedent and a step backward in the state’s effort to soften its image as a poor place to do business.
But Dominion is wrong if it thinks that kind of empty threat is the way to change minds.
The fundamental problem here is with a deregulation scheme which allows Dominion to sell power at a price that bears no relation to its cost. That produces profits that make shareholders happy and legislators eager to grab a cut. But even in a worst case scenario, the tax doesn’t make the plant unprofitable.
Fight the case on the merits and you’ll do better long term.
Then there’s the overwrought wail put out by municipalities over Governor Malloy’s so-called Plan B budget proposal. In response to questions, the Malloy team thought it would be helpful to show what could happen if they can’t get the $1 billion in concessions from state employee unions this year, and instead balance the budget by whacking $1 billion in state aid to municipalities, forcing massive layoffs at that level of government. Predictably, the results were ugly.
Let’s hope the Malloy team, in hindsight, realizes a strategy that appears to pit employee groups against each other isn’t productive.
Let’s keep the dialogue moving. With seven weeks left in the legislative session, there are still facts that must come to light. And it’s up to Malloy to make that happen — soon.
