Race for Governor: Economy is at the center of candidates’ debate

Written by Ken Borsuk
Friday, 09 July 2010 11:42

Brought together by the Greenwich and Stamford Chambers of Commerce, the top gubernatorial candidates met Tuesday, June 29, to debate, among other things, jobs and the economy. All are facing their respective party’s primary on Aug. 10.

The five top candidates for the job being vacated by Gov. M. Jodi Rell this year are Democrats Ned Lamont, a Greenwich businessman, and former Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy, who has the party’s endorsement, and Republicans Tom Foley, another Greenwich businessman and former ambassador to Ireland who has his party’s endorsement, Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele, and Oz Griebel, a businessman from Simsbury. All were all presented the same questions in one large event.

The discussion focused on how each candidate would tackle the problem of turning the state’s economy around while overcoming some of the biggest budget deficits in the state’s history.

New taxes?

Mr. Malloy pointed to his experience running the city of Stamford and his work to create new jobs there, though he admitted his experience alone is not the “be all, end all” to fix the state’s problems.

“We’ve got to stop borrowing money to pay our operating expenses, in part so we can look to those markets in the future for infrastructure investment,” Mr. Malloy said. “We will have to have everything on the table, including adjustments in income, but I will also say that needs to be the last thing we look at.”

Mr. Malloy did pledge to cut the size of government by eliminating 15% of the non-civil servant positions, which he said were partisan posts, and would combine state departments so the number of management positions are reduced and greater efficiencies can be realized. He would also look at taxes to identify the areas where they are both too high and too low to bring more equity.

Mr. Lamont responded saying, “It’s great to get everyone to the table, but then you need a governor who’s willing to decide... We can nickel and dime around the edges and consolidate this and streamline that, but we have to fundamentally reform some of the basic processes of government.”

Mr. Lamont specifically pointed to health care costs as a major source of state spending and said there have to be changes in how it is purchased and how it is delivered. He also said that state nursing care had to be scrutinized and seniors given the chance to stay at home to avoid long care nursing facilities to further save the state money.

“We haven’t earned the right to raise anyone’s taxes,” Mr. Lamont said. “We have to start by showing the fundamental reforms to get the state back on track,”

For the Republicans, Mr. Fedele agreed that everything should be brought to the table, with one notable exception.

“Taxes aren’t going to be on the table,” Mr. Fedele said. “We have the Pac-Man concept in Hartford. The more we give them, the more they spend. There are great opportunities to do the right thing before anyone looks at taxes. Unfortunately, the [Democratic] majority legislature has taken the easy way. I see this as passing the buck and passing the decisions about fixing the state down the road to our children and future generations. We need to take a look at government and see what we can fix. We need to roll up our sleeves and not worry about polls and elections and do the right thing.”

Saying he would not make promises now that he wouldn’t deliver on if elected, Mr. Foley said it is possible to solve the state’s budget deficits without new taxes.

“That doesn’t mean there might not be new sources of revenue,” Mr. Foley said. “I don’t think we’re collecting nearly enough money from Uncle Sam. For every dollar we send to Washington, we only get 62 cents back. The Foley administration will work extremely hard to make sure we get every nickel from Washington we’re entitled to. I don’t think we’re doing that yet.”

Mr. Griebel said it is “absolutely critical” to get people back to work to generate more revenues for the state. To do this requires investment and the prioritization of state spending, he said. This year’s budget will have to look out to years beyond because the problems will not be fixed quickly, he added.

“The budget that is submitted next February must be focused on spending reductions and restructuring before there is any discussion of any revenue increases of any kind,” Mr. Griebel said. “I don’t believe that any of us here want to see any tax increases without fundamental change.”

Jobs

Many of the candidates said Connecticut is only one of two states to have negative job growth since 1989 and that stimulating the economy would come from helping businesses. Michigan is the only other state with negative growth. However, Mr. Lamont, who formed his own business in this state, disputed the idea that Connecticut is a state that’s unfriendly to business, saying the problem is that the state has been “inert and slow” when it comes to job creation.

Mr. Foley believes the perception is true, not just from his own experience, but from talking to other business owners around the state.

“This is more than a perception problem,” Mr. Foley said. “We have to solve the budget deficit. Businesses cannot plan and cannot invest in capital or invest in human resources without some kind of certainty. As long as that budget deficit is sitting out there and businesses don’t know what taxes are going to look like going forward, they’re going to be very reluctant to invest. The second thing is that we have to stop putting mandates on businesses and stop having the legislature from meddling in the private sector. Let’s leave the private sector to its own to grow the economy and create jobs.”

Mr. Lamont would “fundamentally change” the nature of economic development in the state. He proposed a focus on small businesses by cutting taxes and fees for them, allowing them to participate in some of the health plan exchanges that bigger companies use to keep costs down and making early stage funds more available to people who want to start new businesses.

“For the last 20 years, we’ve thrown hundreds of millions of dollars in big tax incentives trying to recruit big businesses across our border,” Mr. Lamont said. “In many cases that’s been a good thing to do, but we’ve done it at the expense of small businesses. We’ve done that at the expense of the job creators in our state.”

Mr. Malloy said Stamford has done a good job of attracting big businesses but that a better job needed on the state level. He pointed to Connecticut having some of the highest electrical rates in the nation as a reason manufacturing jobs were lost. Not enough has been done in state government to cut the use of electricity, to make it more efficient and to use money in the state legislature targeted for energy self-sufficiency and lowered costs as intended, he said. He added more must be done to work with state colleges to offer training and education for workers.

“We have the fastest aging workforce in America,” Mr. Malloy said. “If we don’t get serious about job training in our communities, we’re going to be in big trouble.”

Mr. Griebel said his campaign was going to be about “jobs, jobs, jobs” and that by having those jobs here, it would encourage more young people to stay in Connecticut instead of moving to other states.

“I don’t necessarily believe in targeting a specific sector or specific company, but this is an area we need to spend a tremendous amount of time on with appropriate, energetic leadership and management,” Mr. Griebel said. “I said I would serve as the chief economic development officer of this state. Unless the governor is a hungry governor, we’re not going to keep the jobs here and create new ones.”

Mr. Fedele said he is a “hungry lieutenant governor” already and that he talked daily to the heads of Connecticut businesses to identify what they need to expand, and to out-of-state businesses trying to attract them to set up shop here.

“There are folks talking about it up here, but I’ve done it and I will continue to do it in the higher office of governor, where I will have more juice to make it happen,” Mr. Fedele said, promising to work with both parties in a collaborative effort.

Transportation

Transportation was another topic of the debate which tied intrinsically into the discussion of the economy.

Mr. Foley said too much had been spent from the state’s general fund without there being enough investment in the state’s transportation infrastructure.

“One of the reasons this has been allowed to happen is that we have not been working toward a long-term economic plan for this state,” Mr. Foley said. “It’s hard to make choices and set spending priorities when you don’t have a long-term destination that you’ve agreed upon and that people are trying to reach. The legislature has raided our transportation fund repeatedly to fund the general fund and that’s one of the reasons we’re $4 billion behind.”

By investing in transportation infrastructure and creating a master plan to be followed, Mr. Foley said it will only help with job creation and identified this as one of his platform pledges.

Mr. Fedele said he would stop taking money from the transportation fund and would also look for more help from Washington and demand better results from Congress.

“We have to hold our congressional delegation responsible for not bringing back those dollars to Connecticut,” Mr. Fedele said. “We get far too little back on transportation funds based on what we give.”

Mr. Griebel, a former chairman of the state’s Transportation Strategy Board, said this is an area where the governor needs to take not just responsibility, but also exercise hands-on management. He said Connecticut couldn’t rely on the federal government and that there had to be more local solutions in addition to the state getting serious about restoring money taken from the transportation fund. He said it would be a priority of his administration.

Mr. Malloy agreed with the need to focus on infrastructure, claiming that studies had shown for every billion dollars spent by governments on infrastructure, 22,000 jobs are directly and indirectly created, compared to 16,000 jobs from general spending. He said he has experience going to Washington and getting money back for transportation, something that set him apart from the other candidates.

According to Mr. Lamont, there is no strategy other than the squeaky wheel getting the grease. Along with smarter spending and more of an investment in bridges and roads, there needs to be a strong public transportation system in place, he said.

“We’re a small, tightly congested state,” Mr. Lamont said. “We’ve heard politicians say for the last 30 years we’re going to get the trucks and cars off the roads. This is our opportunity. Our transportation system used to be a great strategic advantage for the state of Connecticut. We were the gateway to New England. Today it’s just gridlock.”