Hartford Business Journal

20 Hartford Business Journal • February 6, 2017 www.HartfordBusiness.com OPINION & COMMENTARY EDITORIAL Democrat Malloy plays the role of conservative governor G ov. Dannel P. Malloy, Connecticut's leading Democrat, is sounding more like a Republican these days. In the weeks leading up to the release of his much-anticipated two-year bud- get, the progressive Democrat has advocated for spending reductions, a tax break for insurers and fewer mandates on cities and towns. He's also criticized members of his own party for lobbying for higher taxes on hedge funds. In a vacuum, it might seem as if Malloy has been brainwashed by the state's increas- ingly powerful GOP, which has been highly critical for years of the policies backed by the governor and Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. That, of course, is not the case. Malloy, however, continues to come to grips with the state's new economic reality, in which rising long-term debts and lackluster economic growth have mired Connecticut in a vicious cycle of budget deficits with no end in sight — even after legislators approved two of the largest tax increases in state history since 2011. Malloy's recent policy stances indicate that he realizes economic growth — not further tax hikes — is the only way Connecticut can reverse course. We fully support that point of view. It's a theme we have been pushing for years. Connecticut's business climate — fairly or unfairly, depending on to whom you talk — has come under intense criticism in recent years by Republicans, business leaders, economists and others, who have said the state's slow recovery from the Great Reces- sion is a direct result of the high costs of doing business and overzealous regulations. Others have blamed Connecticut's poor economic performance (the state shed 2,000 jobs in 2016 and has failed to recover all the jobs lost during the Great Recession) on a lack of invest- ment in transportation infrastructure, IT and workforce development, among other areas. All of those factors have certainly played a role in Connecticut's lackluster growth. Combine that with the state's overspending and a long-term debt crisis caused by decades of irresponsible fiscal stewardship, and you see why Connecticut faces billion- dollar deficits in the years ahead. Malloy has little choice but to take a more conservative approach with the state budget. The stakes couldn't be higher. Employers from across the state will be watching closely as Malloy unveils his spending plan Feb. 8. They want to see a commitment to improve the business climate, meaning no more tax increases or new regulations. The state already received a major black eye in 2016 when General Electric announced it was moving its corporate headquarters to Boston. Now Hartford health insurer Aetna, one of the region's and state's largest employers, is quietly considering its own move to the Bay State. Connecticut can no longer afford more of the same. Early indications are that Mal- loy understands this fact. He has slowly unveiled parts of his budget we find attractive. That includes a proposal to reduce the state's insurance-premium tax rate from 1.75 percent to 1.5 percent. He also wants to ease municipal mandates by tightening wage standards on construction projects, eliminating the controversial local spending cap and changing binding arbitration rules, among other proposals. He also lashed out against fellow Democrats for proposing a new tax on hedge funds that would raise more than $500 million in new revenues. Many questions still remain, however, on how Malloy plans to close $1.5 billion budget gaps. We hope the rest of his budget follows the conservative tone he has set so far, but the devil will be in the details. n HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM POLL Will Aetna move its headquarters out of Hartford? ● Yes ● No To vote, go online to HartfordBusiness.com. Last week's poll results: What should be President Trump's No. 1 priory? 12.9% Repealing/replacing Obamacare 41.4% Tax reform 2.9% Trade reform 14.3% Immigration reform 28.6% Other OTHER VOICES Democrats don't want any immigration enforcement By Chris Powell B lustering and chest thumping as always, President Trump botched the announcement and implementation of his executive order suspending immigration from seven war- and terrorist-ridden coun- tries in the Middle East and Africa. It was as if the White House had never heard of green cards, visas, and due process of law. This caused much unfair hard- ship to certain trav- elers. Fortunately the administration got a quick education about it from reports by the hated news media and injunc- tions from a few federal judges. Critics of the executive order noted that even after the correction for green card and visa holders it was still inconsistent. For Saudi Arabia, where most of the terror- ists of the 9/11 attacks came from, was left off the list, as were Afghanistan and Pakistan, where 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden and his accomplices hid out. But those omissions needed little expla- nation — Saudi Arabia being the oil-exporting colos- sus and Afghani- stan and Pakistan still facilitating U.S. military operations — and no amount of consistency would have assuaged the president's critics. For the most part they want no restrictions on immigra- tion whatsoever. The president's critics call the executive order a "Muslim ban," but it's not. Yes, most people in the countries covered by the order are Muslim but Muslim countries that are not war- and terrorist-ridden are not affected. And the tears shed by the president's crit- ics for refugees seemed a bit crocodilian. For the countries generating most of the refugees at the moment have been destabilized or even destroyed by U.S. military intervention in pursuit of "regime change," intervention about which the president's critics have been largely indifferent, particularly in regard to Syria and Iraq but also Libya and Yemen. End the interventions and most of the refugee problem will end too. Thus the protests at the airports have seemed less idealistically pro-refugee and pro-immigration than cynically anti-Trump. Besides, even former President Obama acknowledged that Islam is engaged in a civil war between medievalism and modernity. It is a civil war that has overflowed into Europe with the massive uncontrolled immigration there, immigration that is threatening to change the continent's culture from demo- cratic and secular to fascist and theocratic. Religion is one thing, culture another, and fascism and theocracy can already be seen in recent immigration to the United States, which has begun experiencing mass murders, "honor killings," and the oppression of women and homosexuals because of the importation of medieval culture from the Middle East. No one including President Trump himself may really know what he means by "extreme vetting," but with an estimated 11 million people living illegally in the United States, this country cannot be thought to have done much "vetting" at all. The culture and politics of potential immigrants are of urgent con- cern, and given this country's incompe- tence with immigra- tion enforcement, it is a bad idea to keep accepting immi- grants from Reli- gious Crazy Land. Trump's incom- petence and inci- vility probably will discredit some neces- sary policies, weaken the Republican Party, and strengthen the political left. In Connecticut the Republicans want to run against Governor Malloy's unhap- py record, but now the governor is eager to change the subject by running against Trump, who seems determined to make himself a gift to Democrats everywhere. The position on immigration of most Demo- crats, the political left, and illegal immigrants themselves seems to be that anyone who breaks into the country illegally and manages to reach a "sanctuary city" like New Haven or Hartford should be not just exempt from law enforcement but also immediately awarded every social welfare benefit. This sense of enti- tlement is as offensive as the president is. n Chris Powell is managing editor of the Journal Inquirer in Manchester. Chris Powell ▶ ▶ The protests at the airports have seemed less idealistically pro-refugee and pro-immigration than cynically anti-Trump. Send Us Your Letters The Hartford Business Journal welcomes letters to the editor and guest commentaries for our opinion pages. Electronic submissions are preferred and welcome at: editor@HartfordBusiness.com.

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