malloy session close speech

8/6/2019 Malloy Session Close Speech

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Governor Dannel P. Malloy

Joint Session Closing Speech

June 8, 2011

Thank you for inviting me to speak tonight. This is an old tradition, andIm happy to start it again.

During one of the most challenging times in our states history, you allstepped up, reached deep, and worked hard for the people ofConnecticut.

We have not always agreed on the best path, but I know that everyperson in this room had their hearts in the right place, regardless of

party.

I should begin by thanking a great public servant, Lt. Governor NancyWyman. Im lucky to have you as my partner, and I thank you, Nancy,for your close counsel, your tireless work ethic, and your friendship.I want to thank the Democratic leaders President Don Williams andSpeaker Chris Donovan, and the Majority Leaders Marty Looney andBrendan Sharkey. Youve shown courage, youve shown toughness,and I thank you for your partnership and leadership.

And I want to thank the Republican leaders and members. Weve hadour differences, but I have always respected your views, and inparticular your commitment to supporting legislation designed tocreate jobs and rebuild Connecticuts economy. Thank you.

Let me say that Im proud of what we accomplished this session, butvery mindful of how much more there is to do.

We began the session by saying that we needed to focus on creatingjobs, and that we needed to address our budget crisis. We have donethose things, and more.On the jobs front, you approved several important economicdevelopment initiatives that will aid in the creation of thousands andthousands of jobs in the coming years.


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The First 5 initiative to attract more employers, which I hope becomesthe First 50, or maybe even the First 100.

The forward-thinking and ambitious proposal at the UConn HealthCenter, which Im confident will help us create thousands of good-paying, much needed jobs in the short and long-term, and makeConnecticut a leader in bioscience.

And the Bradley Airport Authority, which I think will help us maximizean underutilized resource.As much as we focused on job creation, however, the signature effort

of this legislative session was the budget. But that too was done withan eye toward job creation. As youve heard me say many times, weneeded to send the business community a message that were seriousabout stabilizing the states finances.

We did that and then some.

To the Democrats who took my budget, made it better, and passed it I say thank you. It was a tough vote, but it was the right vote to

make. Its an honest budget that ends the games of the past and putsConnecticut on the road to a better tomorrow.

The budget also begins the process of restructuring and re-makingstate government into a 21st century vehicle for job creation. So whileit reduces the number of budgeted state agencies from 81 to 57, it alsocreates a new Department of Energy and Environment, linking thosetwo issues in a way that will allow us to create jobs, lower the cost ofenergy, and protect the environment.

Consolidating state government on paper was the first step inreinventing government. Now comes the hard part: implementingthose changes.

We all know theres one more step that needs to be taken for thisbudget to be locked in the ratification of the agreement reached with


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the leaders of state employee unions. Im sure I speak for a lot ofpeople when I say I hope they ratify the agreement so that we canavoid going to Plan B and large scale and long term layoffs.

Upon ratification, Connecticut will have a state government that issustainable. That means government will be able to provide theservices that are needed, but at a lower cost to taxpayers.

That said, this budget is nothing to celebrate, not when it asks for somuch sacrifice from so many people. Let us hope this is the last timewe need to go down this road.

While the budget dominated much of our time, Im very pleased with

many of our other accomplishments. Theyre significant, and theyreones we should be proud of.

There are children who might have gone hungry and we found themoney to feed them through the expansion of school breakfastprograms.

There are people working hard at low-wage jobs to provide for theirfamilies and we found a way to give them a boost by implementing

an earned income tax credit.

There are people who might have been forced to go to work whentheyre sick and we found a way to give them the decency of a paidsick day.

There are people who might have been discriminated against becauseof their gender identity and we found a way to make sure theyretreated with the same decency and respect as everyone else.

There are young people who might have been tagged for life ascriminals because they made a dumb mistake and we found a way togive them a second chance by passing into law some long overduecriminal justice reforms.On each of these issues, and a few others, we managed to pass into


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law progressive policies that will define Connecticut as a place ofcommon decency.I mentioned all of your accomplishments not as a shared victory lap,

but as acknowledgement of your hard work.But as much progress as weve made, in some ways our work has justbegun.

Two things will dominate my time over the next few months: jobs andeducation, and I think in many ways they too are linked.

First, lets talk about education.

We did some important things on education during this session wemaintained funding for local education, we put a down payment onuniversal pre-K, and we reformed our higher education system, whichwas an administrative mess. Having said that, much more needs to bedone, and I hope education reform will be the focus of the 2012legislative session.

While thats what I want us to focus on come January, heres what weneed to focus on now: jobs. Its an emergency, and we need to

continue to treat it as such.

To that end, I am marshaling the resources from every corner of stategovernment by asking all agency heads to participate in a tangible waywith plans for job creation and economic growth.

Ive also asked my Commissioner of Economic Development, CatherineSmith, to work with me for the next few months as we crisscross thisstate to listen to and share our ideas with the business communityabout ways state government can aid in job creation.

In the next few days Ill be reaching out to legislative leaders to talkabout coming back here in the fall so that we can have a specialsession that focuses on one thing: jobs.In the legislative session that just ended, we made some real progress


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on some important issues, and we began to fix what was broken for solong in Hartford.

We should feel good about what we did, but we should also be mindful

of how much more there is to do.Thank you for taking the time to listen to me, thank you for your hardwork this session, and thank you for your dedication to public service.God bless you, and God bless the great State of Connecticut.

malloy session close speech

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