Connecticut's Lawmakers Sound Off About Voter Frustration

Missing: Voter confidence, about 2 million strong, last seen sometime in January.

While faith in Hartford normally waxes and wanes, it’s dropped tremendously in recent months, said many legislators. They point to the unions’ failure to ratify a concession deal and higher taxes across the board as two main reasons for the dip.

“My constituents are looking at this with great alarm. They are very worried about further spending cuts if the deal isn’t ratified,” state Sen. Edward Meyer, a Democrat representing Branford, Durham, Guilford, Killingworth, Madison and North Branford in the 12th Senate District.

People in the district worry about cuts to Dial-A-Ride, ferry service and Medicaid, of which the state pays half, Meyer said. They also frowned upon the closing of the Old Saybrook Department of Motor Vehicles office.

From the start Gov. Dannel P. Malloy talked about shared sacrifice in order to balance the budget. One great piece of that was getting at least $1.6 billion in union concessions. The unions rejected the deal late spring. In turn Malloy said about 6,500 layoffs might be required to balance the budget. More than 3,000 layoff notices have gone out in recent weeks.

Then the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition and the governor announced a deal for another vote. Much of the original $1.6 billion concessions deal stays. Among other things, that deal included no longevity payments, hiring and firing freeze. But language about health care changes tweaked. That’s because when SEBAC rejected what many legislators from both parties and most of the public called a sweetheart deal they did so because of state concerns about health care.

That led to a crisis of confidence, said several lawmakers from both parties.

State Rep. Brenda Kupchick, a Republican representing Fairfield in the 132nd House District, knows where voter confidence is these days.

“It’s in the toilet,” Kupchick said. “I have constituents, small business owners, calling me because they don’t want to pay taxes.”

The union leaders recently revised their bylaws. Now ratification of a deal won’t need a super majority, a simple majority will work. The change came in part because under the old rules, although 57 percent of the unions had voted for the concession deal it wasn’t enough for ratification.

It’s not change one state senator can believe in.

“Voter confidence on all levels of government is low and it’s justified,” said Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, a Republican representing Easton Fairfield, Newtown and Weston in the 28th Senate District.

McKinney said government’s behavior on both the federal and state level has unraveled confidence. It’s not enough that Congress reached a debt ceiling deal, and Harford voted on the budget, he said.

“The problem is that neither fully addresses the long-term problems. In Connecticut union leadership has not performed well. The leaders proved they can’t at all,” McKinney said.

Earlier this summer State Sen. Edith Prague, a Democrat representing towns in the 19th Senate district, including Ledyard and Montville, called the union rejection a nightmare. She said the unions were “out of their minds” to turn down the deal.

Connecticut isn’t alone in the union fight. Over in the Empire State, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo counted on $450 million in savings from reduced labor costs and warned there would be as many as 9,8000 layoffs if state employees didn’t accept wage freezes. To the north, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick wants to curb municipal employee bargaining.

Changes in union rules are desperately needed if the public is to regain trust, McKinney said.

“Union collective bargaining needs to be overhauled – but as long as Chris Donovan is speaker we’re not going to see change,” said the senator.

Three key things must happen to restore voter confidence, Meyer said. One, jobs need to be restored, two a major reduction in health insurance and energy costs are needed, and lastly, the state needs to find ways to stop young people from leaving the state

“Very dramatic change in Connecticut is needed,” he said.

Union concessions are part of what some call the three-legged stool needed to get Connecticut into shape: higher taxes, more spending cuts, and union givebacks.