Malloy Continues Budget Tour at Meriden Chamber Breakfast

The ambiance was markedly different, but the message was the same as Gov. Dannel Malloy's last presentation in Meriden: It may be painful, but my proposed budget will get the state back on track.

The governor spoke to more than 100 local professionals over breakfast at Meriden's Four Points by Sheraton Wednesday morning, just days before the state legislature's Finance and Appropriations committees are expected to vote on the controversial 2011-2012 budget proposal Malloy presented in February.

This event came a month after the governor at Lincoln Middle School in Meriden during one of his 17 town hall meetings held throughout the state this spring. There, the audience clamored to pepper Malloy with questions about healthcare and taxing the rich, but this morning, the handful of audience members who spoke to Malloy after a short speech politely asked about how his plan would affect their own industries.

Malloy immediately launched into the 2011 - 2012 budget he proposed to the state legislature in February, which involves tax hikes, government restructuring and cuts, to fill $3.5 billion deficit he said he inherited when he was elected in November 2010.

Malloy said that the current 2010 - 2011 budget was based on risky financial practices, including a plan to borrow up to $1 billion to cover operating expenses and using $271 million in federal stimulus dollars for municipal education funding that should have come from the state and would expire this year.

"If I had passed that on, there would have been some pretty significant problems," he said, defending his overhaul to the crowd.

State Republican lawmakers rolled out their own version of the budget just Tuesday, which included no increased taxes -- but instead proposed eliminating 2,700 state jobs, reconfiguring agencies, and cutting off public funding for political campaigns, according to the Associated Press. Malloy and Democratic legislators criticized the GOP plan in press statements Tuesday as unclear and gimmicky.

Malloy said he is proud that his proposed budget would – for the first time in the state's history – fully fund its pension obligations on an actuarial basis, to the tune of $877 million.

"Remember I had to cut spending, but what I didn't do is what every other governor has done in the past, which is shortchange the pension program," Malloy said, adding that Connecticut has the fifth worst-funded pension in the U.S.

In a month where gas prices have hit $4 throughout the state, Malloy defended his plan to increase the gas tax by 3 cents more a gallon to reportedly close a shortfall in the state's transportation fund. He said that Connecticut had cut the tax by 16 cents a gallon in the last few years, and the state could not continue to safely maintan roads and bridges with the gap.

"We are going to have for the first time, a real, honest budget. In the long run, we're going to turn this state around," the governor said of his aggressive plans before opening the event up to questions.

Guy Darter, whose family has a silkscreening and embroidery company based in Cheshire asked Malloy to direct the state's agenices and universities to purchase from Connecticut-based companies. He said that because of onerous taxes, his 14-person company – Darter Specialties – can't compete with out-of-state prices, and that he's losing business to companies in nearby states.

Malloy asked Darter to send him some information about the business, and said that he would discuss the idea in Hartford. He also said that the University of Connecticut's new president Susan Herbst "really gets" economic development and that her interest might spread to other colleges.

Local attorney and Meriden Probate Judge Brian Mahon said the governor's budget had an item that would reduce funding to the worker's compensation commission -- which would threaten to "decimate" a worker's rehabilitation unit already crippled by 15 years of budget cuts and reallocations. 

"We will take a look at it - there's a tremendous level of dissatisfaction with the system as its currently operating,"Malloy told Mahon. "We are concerned with the cost of administration of that system. It's not one of the most efficient programs in the United States."

Pam Fields, Executive Director of the ARC of Meriden-Wallingford which provides services to children and adults with disabilities, told the governor that cuts to state agencies could actually increase costs for the state.

"Sometimes when community providers lose money and the individuals therefore lose services, they go to more costly means of hospitals and in-house care that will cost the state twice as much money," Fields said.

Malloy said he doesn't want to cut these services, but if he doesn't get concessions from state employees he'll have to slice another $1 billion from the state budget, because he will not further raise taxes to cover the gap. But there may be other cost-saving measures the state could pursue to cut the fat -- he said that according to Walgreens, only 66 percent of prescription drugs the pharmacy distributes in Connecticut are generic.

"We know that for each percent increase in the use of generics, we could save millions upon millions upon millions of dollars," Malloy said. 

Following the event, many at the breakfast said they supported Malloy.

"If his track record in Stamford is portable, we can expect great things in Central Connecticut," Sean Moore of the Meriden Chamber of Commerce said.