Politics & Government

Malloy's Pledge: Southeastern Connecticut Will Be "First And Foremost" In Tourism Campaign

Governor Promises To Make Southeastern Connecticut A Big Part Of April Tourism Campaign

During his speech at the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut’s annual meeting Thursday night, Gov. Dannel Malloy said he was flabbergasted over two things: Connecticut’s complacency over no net job growth in 20 years and the neglect paid to southeastern Connecticut by previous governors.

“Let me be very clear about this: Connecticut will not do well unless this portion of the state is doing well,” Malloy said. “I for the life of me don’t understand why other governors found it so easy to ignore for so long this wonderful and beautiful portion of this state.”

Malloy said southeastern Connecticut would be “first and foremost” in the state’s new tourism campaign, which is expected to be released in April. Southeastern Connecticut has several attractions, and they will be marketed in this new campaign, Malloy said.

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“I want you to understand that we are approaching how to sell our state, we are first and foremost thinking about how we sell this portion of the state and make sure our partners in the casino business, and their partners and suppliers and their employees, as well as all of the other attractions, and a great aquarium I might add, benefit from what we are going to do,” the governor said. “We will do this together.”

The Plan

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Malloy chastised previous administrations for they way they funded state employee pensions, for ignoring southeastern Connecticut and for accepting no net job growth in the past 20 years. In the past 20 years, Michigan and Connecticut were the only two states to have no net job growth, he said.

“During that period of time, the United States produced 24 million new net jobs,” Malloy said. “Twenty-four million. And we got none of them.”

To change that, Malloy proposed to fix education, to invest in tourism and to fund state employee pensions in a smoother fashion. The first year in office was about fixing the state’s $3.6 billion structural deficit, and the focus now will be “getting (Connecticut’s) swagger back,” he said.

“We are going to get this state moving together,” Malloy said. “It is not easy, it isn’t going to happen overnight. You don’t turn back 22 years of abuse and neglect in a single year or two years or three years. But we are laying the groundwork for intergenerational success.”

The Specifics

To fix education, Malloy is proposing more stringent teacher and administrator evaluation systems, and pledged to fix the bottom 25 school districts. If all students graduated high school with the ability to start a career or are ready for secondary education, Connecticut would have full employment, he said.

“We can not tolerate throwing away children,” Malloy said. “We can not tolerate economically not properly educating those children.”

To help fix the economy, Malloy is proposing incentives to businesses that hire people within the state, along with his April tourism campaign. The subsidies for new employees should encourage businesses to train those employees, because a large reason many people are unemployed is because they are not trained for available jobs, he said.

“We have jobs, but we don’t have the people with the qualifications to fill those jobs,” Malloy said. “And that is infuriating.”

Finally, Malloy said he would fix the state's employee pension fund, “the worst-funded pensions in the United States,” by paying more in smaller increments now, instead of huge sums later. The agreement that is in-place now would fully fund pensions by 2032, but it would require “balloon payments," he said.

“We have to face up to our problems, and one of our biggest problems is pension reform," said Malloy, who said previous administrations "kicked the obligation down 30 years.”


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