Governor Rell's and the General Assembly's Clean Water Farce
Just a few days ago, after the Connecticut General Assembly passed a bonding package that included $110 million for clean water projects, including Long Island Sound, Connecticut Fund for the Environment was proclaiming it “the greatest day for clean water and Long Island Sound in twenty years.”
If the Hartford Courant is to be believed (here), it’s possible that CFE was a tiny bit premature in its proclamation (either that or the standard for “greatest day” is really low). Here’s what the Courant reported:
Rell took the latest step in the long-running stalemate by vowing to veto a $3.2 billion general-obligation bond package passed late Thursday, saying the borrowing would plunge Connecticut too deeply into debt.
Legislative leaders flatly rejected a demand by the governor that the General Assembly return next week to approve a pared-down bonding package to cover the state's school-construction obligations, which will increase next month by another $44 million.
Legislators are saying that they might not get back to it until February.
In truth, though, the attention shouldn’t be on the perhaps-mistaken optimism of CFE. It should be on Rell and the General Assembly. I’m sure there’s some political posturing going on, but nevertheless the situation in Hartford is disgraceful. (There's some year-old background info here, which will give you an idea of how long this farce has been going on.)
If the Hartford Courant is to be believed (here), it’s possible that CFE was a tiny bit premature in its proclamation (either that or the standard for “greatest day” is really low). Here’s what the Courant reported:
Rell took the latest step in the long-running stalemate by vowing to veto a $3.2 billion general-obligation bond package passed late Thursday, saying the borrowing would plunge Connecticut too deeply into debt.
Legislative leaders flatly rejected a demand by the governor that the General Assembly return next week to approve a pared-down bonding package to cover the state's school-construction obligations, which will increase next month by another $44 million.
Legislators are saying that they might not get back to it until February.
In truth, though, the attention shouldn’t be on the perhaps-mistaken optimism of CFE. It should be on Rell and the General Assembly. I’m sure there’s some political posturing going on, but nevertheless the situation in Hartford is disgraceful. (There's some year-old background info here, which will give you an idea of how long this farce has been going on.)
Labels: Clean Water Fund
posted by Tom Andersen at 7:16 AM
1 Comments:
Tom, your comments this morning beat to the punch but I wanted to add the following.
They should give CFE a break, they truly deserved a moment in the sun after their (and a lot of others) hard work. The fact is there was $110 million in the bond package for clean water.
As a guy who wears two hats I am personally ashame of my legislators cap these days. While I love the job of working for the future of my state, I am a bit sick of political posturing for electoral gain.
Having an inside view I made statements in Sphere that reflected the atmosphere in the capital not something always easily picked up outside. Given the backsliding of recent years I don't blame anyone who celebrated a little last week.
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