“Think about this: Rome is burning. We’ve got a $3.5 billion deficit,” said former Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland at a May Yankee Institute luncheon.
“By the way, even with this concession package, the budget deficit is still $1.2 billion. And, oh, let me insult you some more. There’s a billion dollar budget surplus built into this budget – a cushion,” he said. “Now, I think a cushion’s like a million dollars out of $20 billion budget. It’s not a billion dollars.
Rowland’s political career ended when he resigned the Governorship, pleaded guilty to one corruption charge and served 10 months in federal prison. Now he co-hosts the “Church and State” radio broadcast with pastor Will Marotti weekdays from 3 to 6 p.m. on WTIC AM.
“Now let me add more insult to injury,” Rowland said. “This administration and the legislature has adopted in the budget an earned income tax credit, which is anything but.”
“One hundred and thirty-thousand people in the state of Connecticut who do not pay taxes will get tax refunds of up to $1,700 each,” he said. “It’s income redistribution. There’s no other way to explain that.”
“The total cost for that $160 million,” he added. “These guys throw $160 million here and there like after-dinner mints.”
“So it begs the question, why are they doing all this stuff? And they’re doing all this stuff to endear themselves to these very special interest groups on Election Day. That’s the only explanation, because you can’t rationalize these issues. You cannot rationalize them.”
“Will binding arbitration or prevailing wage ever change? And the answer is, ‘No way.’ As a matter of fact, it’s probably going to go the other way,” Rowland said. “It is going the other way. While everybody else is curbing – including the state of Massachusetts on a vote of 111 to 44 – curbing collective bargaining rights of employees, the state of Connecticut, this legislature, is expanding collective bargaining rights to more state employees.”
“If they’re vendors to the state, they can become unionized. I’m not making this up,” he said. “It’s all for self-preservation. It’s all for political benefit. It’s all to pander and endear themselves to various special interest groups.”
“The two appropriations chairpersons work for social service agencies whose goal is to get money from the state, and they’re running the appropriations committee. Hmmmm, I wonder if they have an interest in seeing spending increase,” Rowland said.
“Maybe they’ll have a public hearing. Maybe they’ll listen to you, but they’ll announce the bill’s going to pass even before the public hearing takes place.”
“There’s no interest like self-interest,” Rowland said. “Their self-interest is to be re-elected. And they think that they need these unions and all these groups to elect them. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be doing all this pandering.”
“Is there anybody out protesting about the budget cuts? Is there a letter to the editor? Is anybody screaming about the budget cuts? No. So there can’t be any,” he said. “Forget the issues, forget the minutia. Look at how people react. That’s real.”