Hartford Business Journal

36 Hartford Business Journal • October 24, 2016 www.HartfordBusiness.com OPINION & COMMENTARY EDITORIAL Republicans' budget-forecasting concerns are legitimate A simmering political controversy over differing budget projections offered by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy that show a balanced budget on one hand, and a deficit on the other, is cause for concern to Connecticut taxpayers. The melodrama — first reported by the CT Mirror — stems from a Sept. 6 memo Mal- loy sent to his agency heads asking them to tighten their purse springs in anticipation of a projected $133 million deficit for the current fiscal year. Two weeks later, Malloy's budget office released its monthly public budget forecast, declaring the state's General Fund was in balance, even projecting a tiny surplus. The discrepancy between the rosier public forecast and gloomier private one drew the ire of GOP legislative leaders, who were looking for any slab of political red meat to feast on as Election Day approaches and political power in the General Assembly hangs in the balance. In addition to calling for a special hearing on the conflicting budget projec- tions, Republican lawmakers also want to restore the comptroller's authority to essentially verify rather than rubber stamp the governor's budget forecasts. We understand the budget is the single most political document within state gov- ernment because it reflects the values and priorities of those who hold power. But the public needs an honest accounting of the state's financial position. Forecasting a deficit in a memo to agency heads and a balanced budget to the public doesn't seem to live up to those expectations. The fact that this occurred weeks before an election raises further eyebrows. Republican calls for more independent budget assessments should be taken seriously and the comptroller, who is also elected, must be allowed to do his/her job and serve as a check and balance to the governor. We urge lawmakers next legislative session to give the comptroller's office the ability to modify the governor's monthly budget projections, powers that were stripped away by the legislature more than two decades ago. (It should be noted that the nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis also issues revenue estimates). The Malloy administration and other Democrats have fought back against Republi- cans, arguing their over-the-top rhetoric is simply election-year politics. Surely, there is some truth to that. Connecticut's weak Republican party is looking to gain control of the House and Senate and stirring a controversy a few weeks before ballots are cast could sway some of the electorate. But there is some history here. It was only a few years ago when Gov. Dannel P. Malloy downplayed the threat of future budget deficits during his tight gubernatorial race with Republican challenger Tom Foley, only to reveal a large deficit shortly after his victory. The Malloy administration has painted its internal projections as a sort of bud- get exercise that will help the governor craft his next budget proposal to be released early next year. Malloy's budget chief, who was scheduled to release another budget assessment last week, told the CT Mirror that the message to commissioners contained "extremely conservative" revenue estimates. That may be true, but taxpayers deserve that same honest assessment, and considering the state's economic performance in recent years, conservative estimates seem to be the right approach. n RULE OF LAW Expanding school choice key to education reform By John Horak O n Sept. 7, Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher issued a decision in Con- necticut Coalition for Justice in Educa- tion Funding Inc. v. Rell, which is the latest in a decades-long series of Connecticut lawsuits (commencing in the 1970s) that have sprouted in the soil where the "educational promise" the people inserted in the state constitution in 1965 ("There shall always be free public elementary and sec- ondary schools in the state" and the "Gen- eral Assembly shall implement this prin- ciple by appropriate legislation") collides with the on-the-ground reality in poor public school districts (where educational outcomes lag far behind those in wealthier districts). Moukawsher concluded that the state has defaulted on its constitutional educational promise to children in the poor districts, and gave the General Assembly 180 days to come up with a solution for him to review. The decision is on expedited appeal to the Connecticut Supreme Court. However, regardless of what the Supreme Court decides, this case, like its predecessors, will likely fail to make a sufficient difference for the simple reason that the problem in these districts is eco- nomic in nature (self- perpetuating poverty and its many mani- festations), and pros- perity (and its associ- ated human benefits) cannot be restored by judicial order or by legislative decree. On the other hand, a suit filed on Aug. 23 in Connecticut Fed- eral District Court (Martinez v. Malloy) is an education case with promise. It argues shrewdly that the state is, de facto, segregat- ing children in the poor school districts (which it knows "full well" are inadequate) by placing artificial limits on the availability of "school- choice" options (magnet schools, charter schools, and open-choice programs) that would otherwise offer them a way out. In legal terms, Martinez argues that leg- islative roadblocks limiting the availability of school choice violate the federal constitu- tion's equal protection and due process rights of the children — who are left to languish "on waitlists for years and years" until it is too late. In lay terms, the wisdom in Martinez is the same as that in the Serenity Prayer, which, as readers may know, is to ask God to grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Another way to say it is this: We must be mature enough to accept with pragmatism the fact that the poverty in question will not be ameliorated anytime soon, while having the wisdom and courage to change what we can in the meantime — expand school-choice options to give the kids a way out. There is a fascinating alignment of the stars in these two separate cases (maybe God is listening after all). On the one hand, Mou- wkawsher has made at least half the case for the plaintiffs in Martinez by concluding (after hearing weeks of evidence) that the public schools are, in fact, failing the children; and, on the other hand, the Martinez plaintiffs are spoon-feeding Mouwkawsher (depend- ing on what happens in the appeal) a legisla- tive remedy of the type he gave the General Assembly 180 days to devise — eliminate the artificial barriers that limit the availability of school choice. The favorable alignment of these cases puts traditional opponents of school choice — the members of the state government- union axis (who want to protect their turf) and the social-justice visionaries (who want to fix cities like Bridgeport by taking money out of neighboring Fairfield) — between a rock (Moukawsher) and a hard place (the fed- eral courts where Martinez was filed), which does not mean they are likely to change their minds any- time soon. My response to the members of the gover nment-union axis is that the situ- ation has become sufficiently dire as to expose a massive ethical failing on their part — a con- flict of interest born of the fact that the educational promise in the state constitu- tion runs to the ben- efit of the children, not to the educators or employees of the state Department of Education who are merely the function- aries through which the promise is fulfilled. My response to the social-justice visionar- ies is that they should not use children in poor districts as pawns in a quixotic effort to "solve poverty" by blaming, for example, wealthy Fairfield for the plight of Bridgeport; or to advance regionalism (a surreptitious form of wealth redistribution), which is a political impossibility that would, at best, dilute the concentration of poverty for a while. In other words, in addition to the Serenity Prayer the visionaries should remember that the perfect (fixing all that ails Bridgeport, for example) should not be the enemy of the good (giving as many of the kids as possible a way out of its schools). n John M. Horak is a retired lawyer and the director of TANGO Nonprofit Education and Consulting in Farmington. The opin- ions expressed are his own. HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM POLL Can UConn men's/women's basketball maintain elite status outside a Power Five conference? ● Yes ● No To vote, go online to HartfordBusiness.com. Last week's poll results: Does your company offer the ability to telecommute? 60% Yes 40% No John Horak ▶ ▶ In legal terms, Martinez argues that legislative roadblocks limiting the availability of school- choice options violate the federal constitution's equal protection and due process rights of the children — who are left to languish "on waitlists for years and years" until it is too late. ▶ ▶ Republican calls for more independent budget assessments should be taken seriously and the comptroller, who is also elected, must be allowed to do his/her job and serve as a check and balance to the governor.

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