[JayCT]

9

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.

What does the busway have to do with Hartford's financial situation? I would say nothing.

Hartford is still the state's largest employment center. More than 112,000 people work there. The busway is designed to give workers an alternative to sitting in traffic on I-84 every day and judging by ridership numbers, it is working. Hartford's population actually increased between the last two US Census dates (2000 and 2010) but that has little to do with the need for the busway since it primarily bring people from the suburbs into the city for work. Jay

[JayCT]

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.

Forgot to add, I do not think anyone is thrilled with the SEBAC deal but it was the best that could be negotiated and it was approved by the state legislature whether we like it or not. Jay

[Mike 75]

Originally Posted by ads94

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.

Governors don't get elected to provide excuses. They get elected to provide solutions. All of this should have been evident to Dannel when he decided to run (no one forced him). He wasn't up to the task. On to 2018.

And being a former state employee myself, I have little sympathy for them.

Originally Posted by 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.

Couldn't have said it better my self.

Originally Posted by JayCT

9

What does the busway have to do with Hartford's financial situation? I would say nothing.

Hartford is still the state's largest employment center. More than 112,000 people work there. The busway is designed to give workers an alternative to sitting in traffic on I-84 every day and judging by ridership numbers, it is working. Hartford's population actually increased between the last two US Census dates (2000 and 2010) but that has little to do with the need for the busway since it primarily bring people from the suburbs into the city for work. Jay

If the busway doesn't move the needle for Hartford economically, what good is it really? Hartford has never had the traffic issues that FFC has, so talking about alleviating the traffic on 84 isn't compelling to the people downstate who deal with 95 and the Merritt on a daily basis. Yes, I understand that much of the money was from the Feds, and Rowland and Rell were a part of it and yada yada yada, but it seems to be just another shiny thing. The reality is there will continue to be little support for it outside of the immediate Hartford area, and virtually no support downstate.

Originally Posted by JayCT

Forgot to add, I do not think anyone is thrilled with the SEBAC deal but it was the best that could be negotiated and it was approved by the state legislature whether we like it or not. Jay

LOL. What an appeal to authority. The legislature never voted on the first deal in 2011. They just let it go into force without a vote. While they voted on the 2017 deal (first time they ever did so), it was along party lines. Considering that the speaker of the house is a union employee and the Dems are in the pocket of the state employee unions, of course it passed.

[BobNJ1960]

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.

He botched the 2nd to last contract. Laid off 6k after union snubbed last "best" offer, then when they accepted a deal some time later, retraced the layoffs. Should have retained a healthy % of layoffs , which reduces legacy requirement up the road. Plus, they would never vote a "last, best offer" down again.

He blinked. That's bad management.

He said layoffs follow if you vote it down. They did vote it down. Layoffs did not follow.

Cowardly action.

[BobNJ1960]

Originally Posted by JayCT

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.

We will pay for his error for decades, Jay.

Due to it being the WRONG decision.

He essentially said "We have 6k surplus workers", and we pay for that excess.

He had a way to run Ct w/o them, so they are excess.

[Dolce_00]

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?

Hey man, just because Dems control everything in the state is no reason to blame them. They're trying really, really hard and stuff.

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by Mike 75

If the busway doesn't move the needle for Hartford economically, what good is it really? Hartford has never had the traffic issues that FFC has, so talking about alleviating the traffic on 84 isn't compelling to the people downstate who deal with 95 and the Merritt on a daily basis. Yes, I understand that much of the money was from the Feds, and Rowland and Rell were a part of it and yada yada yada, but it seems to be just another shiny thing. The reality is there will continue to be little support for it outside of the immediate Hartford area, and virtually no support downstate.

You seem to think that I-84 is not a busy highway. Keep in mind that it is the busiest highway in the state and as I pointed out, it serves the state’s largest employment center. Unlike Fairfield County, Hartford does not have the mass transit alternatives that Fairfield County has. And you are forgetting that the state spends a LOT of money to support that alternative, Metro North. The busway will be particularly important to Hartford when the state begins rebuilding the Aetna Viaduct in several years like Shoreline East did for construction of the Q Bridge. So I do find the attitude of some downstaters to be pretty darn selfish and kind of shortsighted. Jay

[larsm]

Originally Posted by Dolce_00

Hey man, just because Dems control everything in the state is no reason to blame them. They're trying really, really hard and stuff.

HaHa. My bad...

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by Dolce_00

Hey man, just because Dems control everything in the state is no reason to blame them. They're trying really, really hard and stuff.

Didn’t we have 12 years with Republican Governors before Malloy? Aren’t most of the problems we face today due to poor decisions made in the past? There is plenty of blame to go around. Jay

[BobNJ1960]

Originally Posted by JayCT

Didn’t we have 12 years with Republican Governors before Malloy? Aren’t most of the problems we face today due to poor decisions made in the past? There is plenty of blame to go around. Jay

with perpetually Democratic state houses