[BobNJ1960]

Originally Posted by ads94

I do not agree with Malloy on everything. I do think he has run the state to the best of his ability..

That's a horrible thing to say.

[ads94]

Originally Posted by BobNJ1960

That's a horrible thing to say.

I don't think anyone else could have done much better. Malloy had the chutzpah to actually attempt to fund our retirement system, as well as to try and balance the state's finances while also looking towards our future by investing in it. Everyone loved to harp on the busway, but now that it's a massive success everyone is mum about it. Plus, it wasn't even Malloy's busway.

He's done a lot for the state, and I honestly wish he was running again, I would vote for him in a heartbeat. The current Dem crop is bad and the Republicans are worse. I'm a solid D voter unless someone like Stewart wins the GOP nod. I would have supported Lembo or Wyman easily.

[larsm]

Originally Posted by ads94

I don't think anyone else could have done much better. Malloy had the chutzpah to actually attempt to fund our retirement system, as well as to try and balance the state's finances while also looking towards our future by investing in it. Everyone loved to harp on the busway, but now that it's a massive success everyone is mum about it. Plus, it wasn't even Malloy's busway.

He's done a lot for the state, and I honestly wish he was running again, I would vote for him in a heartbeat. The current Dem crop is bad and the Republicans are worse. I'm a solid D voter unless someone like Stewart wins the GOP nod. I would have supported Lembo or Wyman easily.

Malloy is a total disaster and he has greatly added to the giant hole CT has to climb out of...

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by ads94

I don't think anyone else could have done much better. Malloy had the chutzpah to actually attempt to fund our retirement system, as well as to try and balance the state's finances while also looking towards our future by investing in it. Everyone loved to harp on the busway, but now that it's a massive success everyone is mum about it. Plus, it wasn't even Malloy's busway.

He's done a lot for the state, and I honestly wish he was running again, I would vote for him in a heartbeat. The current Dem crop is bad and the Republicans are worse. I'm a solid D voter unless someone like Stewart wins the GOP nod. I would have supported Lembo or Wyman easily.

I agree. People forget that the economy was a mess when Malloy took office and he was handed a mess left by past Governors and Legislatures. Malloy was bold enough to not layoff state workers during the recession like other states. He realized that was the right thing to do at the time. Unfortunately we are still paying for that decision.

You are also correct about CTfastrak (the busway). It was conceived and vetted under Rowland, designed and funded under Rell and Malloy merely let it proceed to construction. Canceling it would have meant the complete loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in Federal Transit money and thousands of jobs. And that was during a period when we needed all the jobs we could get. As you noted, the busway has proved to be a success. Unknowledgeable politicians with questionable intent claimed the funds for the busway could be diverted to highway projects but that was a lie. The Federal money came from the Federal Transit Agency so it could only be used for transit projects. If Connecticut did not use it for the busway the money would have been completely lost and likely gone to another state.

I am not saying Malloy was perfect or that I would blindly follow one political party but I understand the decisions that were made and why they were made. They were not all great but I understand them. It is too bad that the State Legislature took so long to put aside their differences and work together to approve a budget. It would have saved a lot of pain and suffering if they dropped the ego trips and just did their jobs. That was our real problem. Jay

[larsm]

Originally Posted by JayCT

It is too bad that the State Legislature took so long to put aside their differences and work together to approve a budget. It would have saved a lot of pain and suffering if they dropped the ego trips and just did their jobs. That was our real problem. Jay

So by your comment I assume you don’t think a Democratic Gov, who heads the Party controlling the CT Legislature under his tenure, deserves a major portion of the blame for this dysfunction?

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by larsm

So by your comment I assume you don’t think a Democratic Gov, who heads the Party controlling the CT Legislature under his tenure, deserves a major portion of the blame for this dysfunction?

I think that there is more than enough blame to go around to BOTH parties. We had two Republican Governors before Malloy. Both chose to kick the state's problems down the road rather than address them head on. Rell approved borrowing money to cover the deficits under her administration. That was wrong and short sighted. The recent bickering over the budget between the parties was uncalled for. They should have come together months back to work out a deal but both sides have VERY big egos and wanted only their plans to be implemented with no compromises. It created a mess and made things much worse than they had to be. JMHO, Jay

[Mike 75]

Malloy totally mishandled the SEBAC deal in 2011 and again last year. Taxes have gone up but the budget still doesn't balance. So glad that the busway is a "success", yet Hartford teeters on the brink of bankruptcy. Net outflow of residents. The state is worse off than when he started. He's a disaster.

[NewBritainCT_native89]

I’m liking Peter Lumaj as a Republican so far.

[ads94]

Originally Posted by Mike 75

Malloy totally mishandled the SEBAC deal in 2011 and again last year. Taxes have gone up but the budget still doesn't balance. So glad that the busway is a "success", yet Hartford teeters on the brink of bankruptcy. Net outflow of residents. The state is worse off than when he started. He's a disaster.

Connecticut has problems. Connecticut's problems BEGIN all the way back in the 1930s when we didn't fund our retirement obligations. Connecticut's problems GOT WORSE because of the sweetheart deals that Gov. Rowland (R) decided to give to state employees, inflating the costs that we have to deal with right now. Current employees ARE NOT the issue. The state employees (currently) should NOT have to suffer because it's easy to just go "grumble grumble Dems are giving away the farm to state employees " when they are not even the issue. State employees work and live just as many people in this state too. They shop, go on vacations, enjoy their life. Should they be forced to just be slaves to the state because "well, we need money"? That's nonsense.

That's JUST the pension issue. Currently, cities are back in vogue, and all the companies are moving back to the cities because that's where the talent, millennials, and hype all are. Connecticut was shielded from the industrial decline (kinda) in the 1970s-1990s in the Northeast because all of these rich companies moved to suburban Connecticut because the cities were bad places. Places like the Naugatuck Valley are decaying because of this decline, while FFC boomed. Now we lost manufacturing and are now losing suburban office campuses, exacerbating the state's problems.

People are leaving the state because of the weather, because the jobs are elsewhere, because the state's finances are a mess, ect. ect. there's a lot of reasons. It's really foolish to place the blame on a single man. The state would have been no better off under Tom Foley. People need to remember that yes, there's blame on both sides like Jay says. I think the Dems in the House and Senate need to be booted out, they are the ones that made Rell's last terrible budget, and were hunky-dory with letting Rowland screw the state over. Malloy has governed as well as he could have under all of these circumstances, but everyone like to blame him because he's in charge and it's easier than understanding the deep and complex problems the state faces, which is why I still strongly support him. I want a governor who shows leadership like Malloy, and not one like Boughton who promises pie in the sky "shrink government" "abolish income taxes." That sounds great to win elections, but I would rather a governor who isn't lying through their teeth to get elected. It forces the other side to lie too, look at Malloy's $50 rebate that never was and how the state finances were somehow ok during his re-election campaign. People don't want to hear how bad things are.

[larsm]

Every administration inherits problems. Every administration encounters new ones. The very nature of government is problem solving. At least it ought to be.

So the Litmus Test for me is did Malloy make the situation better or worse from what he inherited. Answer is clear: situation was not improved by him.