Malloy Discusses Budget Measures, Bracket Picks With CEOs

With Connecticut facing a $3.3 billion budget gap, Gov. Dannel Malloy made a swing through Darien Thursday evening to discuss the ongoing fiscal crisis with members of the CEO Roundtable.

Speaking at networking event held by the group at Woodway Country Club, the former mayor of Stamford talked over many of the cuts, cost-saving measures, and tax increases he has proposed to correct the shortfall.

“We do not have an easy answer toward fixing a $3.3 billion deficit," Malloy told the audience of business leaders.

The governor said that while some state workers might ultimately lose their jobs, he does not want that to happen. Malloy has already asked Connecticut employees for $1 billion in annual givebacks for the next two fiscal years.

Malloy heaped criticism on former Gov. John Rowland's decision to sign a 20-year contract with state employee unions.

“No mayor in their right mind would enter into a 20-year package,” Malloy said.  

The governor discussed several significant cost-saving possibilities, including switching state workers from their current healthcare plan to that of federal employees, saving the state an estimated $50 million.

Malloy singled out the administrative overhead of state schools relative to their total budgets.

"I want to re-organize our 12 community colleges [and] four state universities to make them a more efficient operating entity," he said.

Malloy also reiterated his call to reform tenure rules in which newer teachers are automatically the first to lose their jobs when cutbacks are made.

“You can be certified in a lot of things yet not have taught any of them in a long time," Malloy said.

Earlier in the week, Malloy and U.S. Treasury officials announced that Connecticut would receive $133 million from the federal government for small business loans.

“We have shifted a number of tax credits to benefit small businesses,” Malloy said Thursday. "It starts to have a real impact for larger small businesses."

Jonathan Kinzler, principal at Stamford-based American Interactive Marketing, was one of more than 140 people in attendance Thursday. 

“What the governor says has a large impact on my decision as a small business owner," Kinzler said.

“It’s very important he makes the tax situation for small businesses attractive in Connecticut, yet at the same time the looming deficit has to go,” he added. "From my perspective, if you can grow the small business base, there are more taxes to help pay down the deficit.”

“I am extremely concerned about what is going on as the owner and operator of a business in Connecticut,” said David Cingari, president of David’s Soundview Catering in Stamford.

Cingari said that plans to expand his business from 20 employees to 30 employees within a few years but is considering moving the operation to Port Chester, N.Y.

“I think he has got a challenge on his hands, regardless of what path he takes," said David Lewis, co-founder of the CEO Roundtable and moderator of Thursday's event.

"If he takes the classic Democratic path, he is probably not going to be here four years from now," Lewis said. "If he takes down the middle — which I think he is doing — it is a pretty shrewd way of having his cake and eating it too.”

Not all of Thursday's event focused on dollars and cents. Asked about his bracket picks in the NCAA basketball tournament, Malloy turned coy.

“If I root for anyone other than UConn, I am in trouble,” said Malloy, a Boston College alumnus.