Republican gubernatorial candidate Thomas Foley called on the governor and legislature Wednesday to adopt fundamental changes to reduce spending – by at least 5 percent, or about $1 billion – and regain control of a state government that taxpayers no longer can afford.<\/p>\n
“During the boom times our state government became something different from what the citizens want and expect from it,” he said at a Wednesday press conference in the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. “Rather than being thrifty, our legislature became profligate. We are now paying the price with a state government we cannot afford and commitments to our citizens that we cannot fulfill. We must reduce the size and cost of our state government in the same way most Connecticut families have cut back on luxuries and reduced other nonessential expenses.”<\/p>\n
“Jobs and out-of-control spending here in Hartford are not being taken seriously enough here at the Capitol,” said Foley, a businessman who served more than two years as former President George W. Bush’s appointee as U.S. ambassador to Ireland.<\/p>\n
He said real spending cuts need to be made, not just shifts between accounts or delays of payments. The state’s economic recovery largely depends on this, he said, because continuing on the current path hurts the business climate and will continue to cost the state jobs.<\/p>\n
“I encourage the governor and legislature to seriously and soon consider these actions,” Foley said. “Things will not get better in Connecticut until they do.”<\/p>\n
Foley said the Democrat-controlled legislature has continued to burden businesses with mandates that will keep entrepreneurs from wanting to locate here. For example, he said there are 53 state mandates for health care coverage, which he said are among “third-rail issues that make Connecticut radioactive” as unfriendly to business.<\/p>\n
Out of those 53 mandates, he mentioned two specifically: “providing wigs … to people who’ve had chemotherapy” and “requiring the same level of coverage for psychiatric treatment … as for medical treatment.”<\/p>\n
“Every one of them sounds good, and sounds like things that you would want people to have — but when you add them all up together, it results in health care coverage in Connecticut being much more expensive than in many other states. So it costs the state jobs — and what’s most on people’s minds are their jobs and the state of the economy.”<\/p>\n
But asked if he would end those two mandates — providing wigs, and requiring parity between psychological and medical benefits — he would not commit himself.<\/p>\n
He answered: “Well, I think what a governor does is provide leadership and a direction… . But I don’t think the governor decides the details of where those cuts are going to be made. And as governor, I would pull together the representatives from the legislature and all the people affected, and come out in a spirit of compromise to make the reductions that need to be made that shares the burden evenly and doesn’t harm any parties disproportionately.”<\/p>\n
As a follow-up question to that answer, he was asked if, as governor, he would recommend that legislators eliminate those two health-care mandates — the wigs and the psychological benefits’ parity. He responded: “I would recommend that they would all be considered in toto with the idea of figuring out ways to make health care coverage in Connecticut less expensive.”<\/p>\n
So, he was asked, that means he’s not ready to recommend the elimination of either of the two specific mandates he mentioned as part of the problem?<\/p>\n
“I’m not,” he said.<\/p>\n
Foley also said state employees’ health and retirement benefits are out of control. “In the good times, our government was more generous than it could afford to be with state workers’ benefits,” he said. “The annual cost of health care benefits for a state worker with a family of four is now over $27,000 a year. A generous private-sector plan for the same family of four costs a typical employer about $14,000.”<\/p>\n
“The difference between the state workers’ health care benefits and a competitive private-sector plan costs the state about $500 million dollars a year,” he said. “Health care and retirement costs for state workers cost the average Connecticut family nearly $1,200 per year and that’s on an average household income of $68.000. … This is simply too much. We must work with the state workeres’ representatives to bring the cost of their health care insurance and retirement benefits in line.”<\/p>\n
Foley said that Connecticut’s costs for Medicaid — including health care for the poor, disabled and elderly — are much higher than the national average for states, and a greater effort is needed to find out why. He also said that the state should exercise its regulatory discretion with state-chartered bank to encourage more lending to small businesses to create jobs.<\/p>\n
He mentioned two ways to immediately cut $130 million a year from the state budget — by privatizing extremely expensive services now provided by two state facilities, Southbury Training School and the Riverview Hospital in Middletown for young people with mental illnesses.<\/p>\n
Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele, another leading contender for the Republican gubernatorial nomination this year, issued a statement in response later, criticizing Foley for what he described as a lack of specificity, decisiveness and practicality.<\/p>\n
Fedele said: “What stands out about Tom’s remarks today is that he said he would hand off the responsibility for making spending cuts to the legislature.” And, Fedele said, Foley had no answer “when asked about the only two specific cuts mentioned in his remarks” – the wigs for cancer patients on chemotherapy and the parity between medical and psychological insurance.<\/p>\n
The closings of Riverview and Southbury Training School could not be accomplished as readily as Foley described, because both facilities are staffed by unionized state employees who enjoy a no-layoff agreement until 2011, Fedele said in a statement released through a campaign spokesman.<\/p>\n
“He puts out a big number [for how much to cut spending] but he doesn’t really seem to know how to go about doing it,” Fedele said. “If there’s anything we don’t need its more funny numbers and the deferring of tough decisions to the legislature.” Fedele said he would make the tough decisions on cuts himself.<\/p>\n
Besides Foley and Fedele, the other five candidates for the GOP gubernatorial nomination Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, Newington Mayor Jeff Wright, longtime business executive R. Nelson “Oz” Griebel, former U.S. Rep. Lawrence DeNardis and Chester First Selectman Thomas E. Marsh. The incumbent Republican governor, M. Jodi Rell, is not seeking re-election.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Foley’s statement even drew fire from one of five candidates for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, former Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy. The Democrat blasted Foley’s suggestion that the legislature consider eliminating health-care related mandates and mentioned the ones requiring employers to provide wigs to people undergoing chemotherapy, and to require the same level of coverage for mental health treatment as they do medical.<\/p>\n
Said Malloy: “This is really what Tom Foley thinks we ought to do? Have a conversation about eliminating insurance coverage for people undergoing chemotherapy and people battling mental illness? Good grief. It’s no secret that Connecticut will have some tough budget decisions in the months and years ahead – but that doesn’t mean we should throw common sense and compassion out the window.<\/p>\n
“First, Tom indicated we should consider eliminating the mandates…then he seemed to say that it might be the Legislature that should do it…then he seemed to not really understand what he was saying. <\/p>\n
“It’s disappointing that someone running for public office can have this many positions on one subject in such a short period of time. Connecticut needs people running government who actually have an understanding and belief in what good government can do – like mandating coverage for things that matter to those most in need.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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