Malloy Shruggs Off Christie, Admits To Sharp Elbows
by Christine Stuart | Jul 1, 2011 12:01pm
(12) Comments | Commenting has expired
Posted to: Media Matters, State Capitol
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy joined the crew of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Friday, just four days after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was on the show laughing at him for raising taxes and not getting the state employee concessions he needed to balance the budget.
Christie said Malloy was lecturing him, but Malloy told Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough he doesn’t think he was lecturing Christie.
“He started talking about allowing states to go bankrupt. How did that go for him? People say things that sometimes don’t make sense. This is a debate that’s more important than who has the bigger belt. It’s policy,” said Malloy.
It’s unclear if the feud between the governors will continue because the topic quickly changed to how Connecticut is dealing with its employee unions.
“Many say you bent over backward and they rejected package. Do you now have to start cutting employees?” Scarborough asked.
“Yeah,” Malloy said.
The process of laying off 6,700 people began yesterday, Malloy said.
“I told them I would do that,“ Malloy said. “Connecticut has to balance the budget in short term basis, which a lot of people are concentrating on. I‘m concentrating on a long term basis.”
He talked about how the pension fund is only funded at 42 percent and while he didn’t mention him by name he talked about how 17 years ago former Gov. John G. Rowland signed a 20 year contract for pension and post retirement benefits with the state employees’ union.
Malloy said he reached an agreement with labor leaders over a concession package which passed with 57 percent of the votes, but because of the “arcane” rules established by the union coalition “57 percent doesn’t win an election.”
“Quite frankly that can’t be tolerated. We’ve got to correct the situation,” Malloy said. “So now I’m in a position where I have a balanced budget. The budget requires me to layoff 6,700 people.”
“But I ’m hopeful that we’ll all get back to the table. That the package that was negotiated will be approved one way or another,” Malloy said for the first time signaling his desire to see unions find a solution to the situation they find themselves in based on the rules of the union coalition.
“That we don’t have to tear families apart by laying off one or two of the parents in the family. This is not a situation where you want to lay a lot of people off,” Malloy said. “But it is time to look ourselves in the mirror and wake up.”
The show concluded with Scarborough asking Malloy, as he’s done with other governor’s including Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, to reflect on his first few months in office and talk about what he would do differently.
“The maturation process takes place throughout one’s life,“ Malloy said. “You garner new experiences and you take those experiences and you move forward.”
“Listen, my elbows may have been a little sharp from time to time. I know people think that. I also know that I move at a pretty quick pace. I know I exhausted the press in doing 17 town hall meetings in a period of about four or five weeks, but I was out there trying to have people understand that it’s not just today’s problem that these are systemic and long-term problems that need to be solved.”
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Tags: Malloy, Morning Joe, Christie
(12) Comments
posted by: vonfifenburg | July 1, 2011 12:43pm
Malloy is absolutely right and I am not only glad that I voted for him, I’m proud to see a politician on national television talking straight.
posted by: SalaciousCrumb | July 1, 2011 1:33pm
Painful as it is for everyone, the gov still has my vote as well. We’ve been living on borrowed time for decades. It’s almost as though the legislature and governor regretted the 20-year deal the moment it was signed and they immediately opted to underfund it going forward. Was it ever fully funded in a budget year?
We needed incremental tax hikes and spending cuts along the way, not only to support these pensions and benefits but also to maintain some level of sanity in our property taxes. But unfortunately, getting the General Assembly to change the tax structure (or really to do anything of consequence when it comes to finances) is like herding cats.
posted by: oliviahuxtable | July 1, 2011 1:51pm
Oh, the celebrity of the hour, being interviewed by (millionaire) Joe Scarborough, (millionaire) Mika Brzezinski, (millionaire)Willie Geist, and who could forget (millionaire) Mike Barnicle!
Millionaires interviewing a millionaire who just screwed (non-millionaire) state employees to protect Connecticut’s (billionaires)—thought I was going to say millionaire again, right? Oh yeah, them, too.
posted by: SalaciousCrumb | July 1, 2011 1:57pm
Malloy is absolutely right about the federal government being a big part of the problem as well. The federal gov’t was spending money recklessly before Obama even thought about running for office. Now we’re in a real crisis and the people who will be impacted the most by by the federal gov’t's failures - like Malloy says - are those who depend on Medicaid and other essentials.
There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that Homeland Security and DoD are spending $ faster than the amounts can be conceived by the human mind, no less counted or accounted for.
posted by: Dimitar Naydenov | July 1, 2011 2:14pm
I liked Governor Malloy’s responses on Morning Joe. He was right to the point and he wasn’t political unlike a lot of Democrats and Republicans throughout the country. That’s my opinion. He is doing what every public servant is supposed to do - listen to the public but at the same time trying to solve the state’s fiscal problems in the long term instead of complaining about the legislature or the labor unions or the weather. Public servants should learn a lot from him.
posted by: BMS | July 1, 2011 5:04pm
Historically the federal government spends about 20% of national income in peace time. During war time it spends more. The Bush tax cuts (most of which went to the rich) brought in 18% of national income and we had 2 wars. That is why the federal government is in trouble with large deficits. I think the rich should pay their fair share, The top 1% of income bracket make more then the bottom 50% combined. At the present time we are bringing in the smallest per cent of national income then we have over the past sixty years, As Warren Buffet says he pays a lower tax rate then his secretary. Buffet has put out a challenge to CEO’s if any of them can prove the pay taxes at a higher rate then their secretaries he will give them a million dollars. To date no one has taken him up on his offer. Connecticut is the richest state in the nation and its millionaires are prospering so lets make the middle class state work pay more.
posted by: oliviahuxtable | July 1, 2011 6:22pm
You know, Malloy’s so scary kids are going to wearing him as a Halloween mask.
posted by: Frankly | July 1, 2011 7:53pm
I still like Malloy, too. He’s doing a good job keeping CT progressive. But the richy-riches down in lower Fairfield have to pay more taxes ,,,,,,,,, otherwise everything is out of kilter,
posted by: SalaciousCrumb | July 2, 2011 12:41am
The money simply can’t be collected from billionaires and giant multinational corporations - at least not now. It’s always been nearly impossible to pry money from the wealthy. A lot of folks like to suggest that back in the middle of the last century, the tax rate on the rich was 90% ... and it’s true. However, they never paid nearly that much because there always have been loopholes and shelters and mattresses to hide money under. Actual collection rate was closer to 40%. It is what it is. People find a way to hold onto their money. Corporations obviously are really good at it. We’ve allowed corporations to infiltrate the culture. We can be pro-business, pro-capitalism (because it works) without being continually mugged by corporate interests.
And worse, we’re already facing a huge problem because of our over-dependence on the wealthy. When the financial sector took a dive we all found out the bad news - half of the state government’s revenue comes from a small number of people whose fortunes don’t always increase. No - Malloy is doing the best he can in a ridiculous situation. Doesn’t help that the blowhard from N.J. is playing games.
The problem starts when one company gets a special deal because they “know someone” and then everyone else has to pay more to support gov’t. One corporate tax break at a time, incrementally, and all of our taxes go up because we don’t all have a team of corporate tax lawyers filing mountains of paperwork to protect our little household incomes from Uncle Sam. The spending doesn’t go down despite the loss of corporate tax revenue. This is the nature of things - gov’t spending on human services actually won’t ever go down in a significant manner because people need the services. A portion of America always will need those services despite the tough-love “operation bootstrap” approach, which is nonsense. That’s just people trying to “parent” rather than govern. But one thing we can do is reign in the main big-ticket item - military spending and off-the-books clandestine activities. Control DoD and Homeland Security, and the federal budget will be balanced.
posted by: redlady | July 2, 2011 6:19am
40% funded?!! A few months ago it was 56%! If people cannot figure out how we got here and figure out what they need to do to turn it around, then there is no hope for CT.Who spent all the money and on what? Who continues to deny the need for spending cuts?
Christie is retaliating for the nasty things that Malloy said about him during his town hall meetings. When you throw stones at someone you better be able to duck when they throw them back. It’s time to be honest and we can only hope Malloy is honest - time will surely tell. I’m waiting for the pink slips.
posted by: hawkeye | July 2, 2011 7:55pm
vonfifenburg: Are you sure you aren’t watching television—under the influence?
posted by: hawkeye | July 2, 2011 8:26pm
Frankly: You say Malloy is doing a good job keeping Connecticut Progressive. WRONG!
A Progressive is a person believing in moderate political change and social improvement by government.
The correct definitian of a Progressive—does not define to describing
Gov. Dannel Patrick Malloy. The Governor’s far reaching budget taxation changes—cannot be described as “moderate.”