House Republican Press Release

March 3, 2008

Press Office: 860-240-8700

Of Course, It’s A Good Idea!

By State Representative John J. Ryan

I would really like to be telling you this week about all the interesting things happening in the Banks Committee, where I am the Ranking Member, or comment on the fascinating infighting between the supermajority Democrats on the movie-tax credit topic. Then there is the hilarious juxtaposition of a former candidate for Governor complaining about the lack of funding his city gets from Hartford with a news item the very next day that his city’s Grand List is almost #1 in the state at $23.9 BILLION, but unfortunately my duty this week is to provide Counterpoint to the amusing editorial of 2 weeks back in this paper (‘Bad Idea’) on Governor Rell’s property tax cap proposal (“you are really off your liberal rocker this week, Shana !” – Now that was good television! )

I keep thinking that I am finally becoming a positive influence on the Editor, and then he falls into the deep end of the pool again…….so here goes:  - “the State should tend to its own business and let municipalities take care of theirs” was the second sentence of “Bad Idea”, and it convinced me that our Editor was being whimsical with this whole topic! “Tend to its own business”…of course, the State does anything BUT that; consider how helpful that 8-30g affordable housing law has worked all of these years! And remember when the State decided to mandate school starting times (and you remember what Rep. Ryan thought of both of these ridiculous approaches)? So why on earth can’t the State have a positive mandate for a change that might be good for you oppressed taxpayers?

- Of course, the Editor completely overlooked a very LARGE point, namely that the State’s constitutional spending cap has (fortunately) been in place for years! It was supported by the voters resoundingly, civilization has not crumbled while it has been in place, and can you imagine what our spending level would be (remember that we are always #1 in the annual Tax Freedom Day survey) without it? But this successful check and balance component somehow is supposedly not a good concept for a different level of government….

- “Municipalities need more state aid” is a line in the middle of the editorial – now there is a profound thought! Of course they do, but the real issue (which again, the editorial ducks) is where such funding would come from, and the horrible truth is that it would have to come from increased taxes! If you followed last year’s budget scuffle, the supermajority plan to increase municipal aid would have given some small amount of increased funding to a Darien, but by significantly increasing income tax revenues, and guess which towns would send a lot more in tax revenue up that they got back?

Duh………It is certainly is easy to cry ‘more State aid’ without touching the issue of how to do it.

- But an even sillier line says “Darien officials don’t need the State to tell them how to allocate budget money” and of course Gov. Rell’s proposal does no such thing! Obviously, a cap does not tell you how to spend what you have, but maybe that was a little “editorial license”?

- Yet another editorial goof is that it completely whiffs on one of the most positive effect on the

 Rell plan is that it takes a shot at one of the most expensive components of budgeting, the favor-the- unions binding arbitration system. The editorial obviously is oblivious to the nuance of how the plan could help municipalities!

- Even more discouraging, the editorial evinces no awareness of the political context of the Rell proposal. Let’s see now, the executive (Rell) is a Republican trying to hold down spending increases, and the legislative supermajority is Democrats….could it be that this is also a negotiating leverage tack in a short session year? Would the most popular (with the highest constituent polling ratings) governor possibly do such a thing?  The awareness of such factors is not cluttering the editorial brain, or pen, here.

- we would be pleased to tell you more, such as the Hartford Courant, those addicts of taxes and  spending, also don’t like Rell’s plan, which is an even better clue that it is a great idea, but we are out of space here. And while we are at it, why is it that if a doctor allegedly errs in a diagnosis or treatment, the doctor gets sued for medical malpractice, or if a lawyer does not represent a client adequately, there is ineffective assistance of counsel, and grievances? What consequences, what checks and balances exist if the editorial is clueless?

Maybe we can get back next week to what is happening in General assembly committees!

As always please feel free to contact me with your concerns and issues. As your state representative, it is my job, and my priority to represent you and to make sure that your needs and concerns are addressed at the capitol.  You can write to me at Room 4200, Legislative Office Building, and Hartford, CT 06106-1591, send me e-mail at John.Ryan@housegop.ct.gov or call my office toll-free at 1-800-842-1423.