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This is just sad.
27 February 2007I was not going to write about Gov Rell tonight, but after reading her article in the Courant I changed my mind. I don’t get the Courant I cancelled my subscription years ago, I just could not take paying for ideas and opinions so alien to mine.
When the Governor made her pitch for more taxes and increased spending I was upset, very upset for reasons I have detailed on this website. And indeed her speech caused the birth of this website.
As the days went by and the Governor was no where to be seen, there was no barnstorming the state with speeches pitching her “bold” move and few if any press releases. It was as if the pronouncement in itself from her was enough. It would stand on it’s own, the Imperial Edict.
But it didn’t, the Democrats loved the opened door to more taxes but had their own ideas on how to spend it and the subjects of Connecticut already burdened with the highest taxes in the country started to complain and question the wisdom of raising taxes on a not fully explained, or well thought out plan. If it could be called a plan at all. Where are the specifics?
I began to think that Gov Rell has really mis-judged and mis-calculated this whole move and that perhaps she has not really thought this idea out throughly. Now her editorial confirms my suspicions. It is difficult to parse this article, there is not much to sink our teeth in to, it is full of platitudes and little to attack in the way of substance. What examples she does give seem almost totally un-related to the question at hand.
And that is the whole problem with this half-baked idea, there is no substance.
She complains
There are political pundits and columnists who criticize nearly everything as too much or not enough - many of whom, interestingly, served in public office themselves. Why didn’t they do anything about this issue when they had the chance?
What issue would that be? The issue we spend more than just about any other state? The issue we are taxed more than any other state? If there is a problem with the student achievement in this state and I am not convinced there is, our in-ability to turn the highest expenditures into better results would certainly call in to question our ability to turn even more expenditures into better results, where is the track record or the plan? Just spending more money is a really bad plan.
I am concerned about the Governor’s ability to take criticism, the person at the top is always going to take the heat, whining about others in-action is not leadership.
My education proposal was largely based on the findings of school financing and accountability experts who spent a year studying the issues and developing their recommendations. Their study was the most recent of many to make recommendations
Can we largely see the report? Who are these “accountability experts” and “school financing” experts. This is who they are, no big surprise here.
The task force membership is comprised of Education Commissioner Betty Sternberg; Portland First Selectwoman Susan Bransfield; Sam S.F. Caligiuri, former acting mayor of Waterbury; Madison First Selectman Tom Scarpati; Thomas C. Foley, chairman of the NTC Group Inc., Greenwich; Lawrence DeNardis, president emeritus of the University of New Haven; Steve Cassano, former Manchester mayor and executive director of the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding; Rosemary Coyle, executive director of the Connecticut Education Association; William Smith, president of the Council of Small Towns and town manager of Granby; Jim Finley, Connecticut Conference of Municipalities; Arleen Pedone, member of the Bethel Board of Education and the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education; East Hartford Mayor Melody Currey;
Also, Allan Taylor, chairman of the State Board of Education; Frank Sippy, superintendent of Regional School District #15; Bobby Poole, executive director of the Community Action Agency of Danbury; Ms. Thomasina Clemons; Mr. Jeffrey A. Klaus; State Representative Betty Boukus (22nd District, Bristol, New Britain, Plainville); State Representative Marilyn Giuliano (23rd District, Lyme, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook, Westbrook) and General Assembly Education Committee Chairs and Ranking Members: Senator Thomas Gaffey, Representative Andrew Fleischmann, Senator Thomas Herlihy, and Representative David Labriola.
Forgive me for arm-chairing it, but where are the taxpayer’s representatives? This the definition of stacking the deck. Just about any level of sarcasm is warranted here.
There is little substance in this, mostly “trust me, I thought about it”.
We have thought about it also, and we have the gall to question your plan, and yes since we question after your speech we can be called “armchair quarterbacks”. But you forget, you never ever mentioned during the election you planned on raising taxes, we never got to discuss your plan in the public arena, it was dropped on us “done deal”. And now the best you can do is call us names?
We could call you names and avoid discussing the issues also.
But no, we won’t, we will meet you on the field of ideas and question your judgement.
The Governor’s rebuttal to her critics is a sophomoric effort which calls into question the Governor’s ability to lead.
An absolutely blistering post on Consent of the Governed. Don’t miss it.
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