Hartford Courant columnist Rick Green says the state should eliminate the Lieutenant Governor’s position and the $110,000 salary that goes with it.
Some future governors, including Democrat William A. O’Neill and Republican M. Jodi Rell, have held the lieutenant governor’s position before stepping up to the state’s highest elected office. Rell served in the post for about 10 years, while others – including A Connecticut Party member Eunice Groark and Democrat Kevin B. Sullivan – have had much shorter tenures.
http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-green_lt._governor_0423.artapr23,0,3864648.column
In a related matter, business entrepreneur Lisa Wilson-Foley of Simsbury, who is running for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor, announced Friday that she would refuse to accept any state money if she is elected to the post.
“The office has a $500,000 annual budget. Eliminating the $110,000 salary, plus a full-time state trooper driver and car and one staff position will trim the lieutenant governor’s office budget by nearly 50%,” Foley said in a statement.
She also announced that after serving for two years, she would start evaluating whether the lieutenant governor’s office needs to be abolished. If so, she would work for the following two years on a plan to carry out the abolishment.
“Families around Connecticut have had to tighten their budget belts during this economic downturn,” she said in a statement. “State agencies should have to do the same.”
Wilson-Foley has created a web site at www.wilsonfoley2010.com.