Faced With A Crushing Deficit, Malloy Budget Officials Still Take Care Of Their Own

Faced with a $100 million budget shortfall for the current fiscal year and a projected $1.3 billion deficit in the next, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's budget officials have proposed cutting millions in state spending on programs such as part-time jobs for needy students, school meals and college scholarships.

But the crisis didn't stop those same officials from approving Christmas-time raises of up to 12 percent for about 200 political appointees at an annual cost of $1.4 million and it hasn't prevented their going forward with $700,000 in interior improvements, such as new carpets and wall painting, at their own offices in Hartford.

Yes, contractors' bids are to be opened Wednesday for the renovations at the five-story headquarters of the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) the formal name for the governor's budget office at 450 Capitol Ave. The construction cost estimate is $702,000, after a design budget of $85,000, according to a spokesman for the Department of Administrative Services, which is handling the bidding process.

The way to cut $100 million in expenses from the state budget is piece by piece, a few million here and there for school meals and student loans, and a few million or hundred thousand somewhere else.

So why couldn't the state budget officials live with the same carpeting and faded wall paint for a couple of more years?

OPM Secretary Ben Barnes, the governor's budget chief, said in a phone interview that renovations to the OPM building and two adjacent ones housing the state departments of Public Health and Developmental Services have been "under way for years" at a cost of millions including new brick pointing, caulking of windows a roof replacement that eliminated the need for "buckets everywhere" when it rained.

"I understand the sensitivity about this," he said. But "to suspend the project at this point would entail a huge waste of time and energy," and "to let these public assets deteriorate with out proper attention to them would be short-sighted." Planning for some of the renovations dates back to before Malloy took office in 2011, he said.

The other thing about the renovation project is that it's being funded with bonds that will be repaid over 20 years, so canceling the project wouldn't immediately reduce the state deficit by the full $700,000, he said.

Barnes has become accustomed to answering reporters' questions, particularly since the December raises were announced as darkness fell on the day before Christmas Eve. He defended those pay hikes including his own, from $187,000 to $210,000 a year against a public outcry by saying that the appointees are valuable, capable people, many of whom hadn't had a raise in four years, while unionized employees had been.

He said the state needed to compensate them to assure that it didn't lose their expertise by their finding something better elsewhere. Some doubted the proposition that for lack of a raise someone would leave a good-paying state job, with enviable health benefits and a good pension.

The rest is here:
Faced With A Crushing Deficit, Malloy Budget Officials Still Take Care Of Their Own