For the most part, Connecticut taxpayers don’t care about who gets the credit or blame for fixing the state deficit. What they do care about is the actual “fixing” part of the equation. And they don’t want to save money on the backs of the sick, old, very young.
They want lawmakers to reassign public funds away from failing agencies and programs to programs and projects that will better position the state’s work force and economy for the future.
And that fixing part calls for real legislative and executive branch leadership, not the finger-pointing political banter between Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the Democratic lawmakers most taxpayers tune out.
There are no quick fixes to remedy the state’s struggling economy and bridge its budget deficit. Taxpayers understand this. However, they want better solutions than those currently under discussion.
Taxpayers are desperate for real leadership because they are facing real mortgages, real credit card bills, and real car payments with real pay cuts.
There is a sense of urgency that Connecticut’s lawmakers must not fail them and adopt reform measures before the current legislative session ends.
The economic pain is everywhere, from Connecticut factories that idle their machines until new orders come in to hundreds of non-tenure teachers who have received pink slips. Connecticut’s citizens want government reform. And they want it now.
They want real reform that axes what doesn’t work, such as the state’s criminal justice and incarceration system, where the inmate population increased 200 percent over the past two decades, even though the number of violent offenders dropped. It costs taxpayers millions of dollars to lock up offenders. While some need and should be in prison, consider that there were 5,600 inmates in 1985. Today, there are about 19,500.
As lawmakers reached into the judicial branch of government by creating laws that required mandatory prison sentences, criminal justice costs skyrocketed.
If locking up more people reduced recidivism and crime, or drunken driving, or heroin addiction, then one might say it’s worth the cost. But recidivism is a shameful 41 percent in the state. And incarceration doesn’t fix brain disease, such as addiction. By any measure, the state’s current criminal justice policies are clear failures.
Lawmakers need to take a risk and champion a new way to punish offenders as a way to find enough money to provide services to those most in need in the state. While they may worry that such reform may make them appear to be soft on crime, not taking that stand will likely hurt countless individuals who most need public assistance.
Consider the concern over the Rell’s proposal to redefine the Medicaid definition of medical necessity. According to nearly 10 nonprofit consumer and advocacy groups, the redefinition will not save the state money in the long run but “cause substantial harm” to those with chronic and disabling conditions who rely on the program.
Instead of cutting funding to those who really need it and axing watchdog agencies, lawmakers should consider adopting new policies and provisions that cut incarceration costs for nonviolent offenders. New technology, such as electronic ankle bracelets, would make home confinement feasible and create a tremendous cost-saving solution while still punishing an individual by confining his or her freedom.
Diverting inmates to alternative incarceration programs, such as a day prison where nonviolent offenders perform community service, such as cleaning up state parks, would reduce the cost of providing inmate food, clothing and reduce the need for prison guards, while still punishing offenders and providing money for education and health care programs.
Our elected officials need to be real leaders by championing true reform policies that cut taxes and improve government services.
Reader response:
“Looking at how we got to the ‘here-and-now’, there’s not much to disagree with in your article.
The missing link of course, is economic development in the form of innovative new ideas, technologies, businesses and the magic tax revenue elixir – jobs! GDP jobs, not FDR-era Stimulus jobs.
State government can help by divesting itself of all its costly and non-cooperating economic development agencies and replace them with one CT GDP growth agency that will work tirelessly with business, academia and investors to incentivize real GDP growth in Connecticut. We have the resources – now if we can only lose our ‘Land of Steady Habits’ perspective, which has managed to ‘steadily’ take us downhill.
Also, when voters elect State Legislators who continue to financially burden our diminishing business base, do they know they are also voting themselves out of a job?” — Anthony D Merenda, i-Mark Inc.
