Take us home, Connecticut country roads

Anyone who drives in the Northwest Corner, or anywhere in Connecticut, for that matter, knows many of our byways are in rough shape. Towns have been patching potholes to get through the winter, but full paving went by the wayside in summer and autumn because of the lack of an approved state budget, and therefore the funding that would have covered such repairs.

As state Sen. Andrew Roraback (R-30) put it to reporter Patrick Sullivan last week, the state was in “never-never land� from April to September on road repair because $30 million in funding was not available (because the state just didn’t have the money), and could not be borrowed by the bond commission because the state budget was not adopted. The state has been in financial limbo in many ways because of the inability of state legislators and Gov. M. Jodi Rell to find a solution to the state’s budget crisis.

The two-year state budget is $37.6 billion, and according to the Hartford Courant, there remains a deficit of approximately $500 million. When the next legislative session opens on Feb. 3, Gov. Rell will present her ideas for resolving the shortfall for the second year of the budget. However, as a lame duck governor, Rell will likely have a hard time selling her solutions, especially to the Democratic-controlled Legislature. Her approach of trying to modify line items on a budget she refused to sign following the last session showed a lack of judgment and knowledge of the system, so it would be surprising if she had come up with a way to find $500 million in viable cuts to save the state from the fiasco it now faces.

The land of steady habits is in disarray during a time of across-the-board transition, with Gov. Rell stepping away from the heavy responsibility of governing Connecticut through the next gubernatorial term and Sen. Christopher Dodd deciding against trying to hold onto his seat in Washington one more time. A veritable circus is forming around the impending elections for governor, senator and attorney general, with potential candidates scrambling to organize themselves and figure out who will settle where in the various campaigns.

In the meantime, it’s the state’s residents who will be most affected by the budget crisis, driving on roads that are in worse and worse shape, watching as state programs and services disappear. Taxes can only increase (despite Rell’s claims she’ll fight that) as legislators attempt to solve the problem of the budget shortfall. The state will survive, but the way in which our leaders have coped with the monumental turnaround in the stability of the state’s finances has not been pretty. Let’s hope that Rell, and all our leaders in Hartford, find the strength and wisdom it will require to bring Connecticut back to balance, giving the state greater stability with which to face the future.

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