Godfrey Says Targeting State Workers Doesn't Make Sense

By Scott Benjamin

When Bob Godfrey first ran for the state House, Vin Scully was calling Kirk Gibson’s epic World Series home run, Bruce Springsteen was the hottest thing this side of Bugs Bunny and H.W. Bush was promising “a kinder, gentler nation.”

Not long after Godfrey was elected in 1988 there was a major tax increase to offset a revenue shortfall, which, in part, caused Gov. William O’Neill (D-East Hampton) to not seek a third term. With revenues still plunging two years later, his successor, Lowell Weicker (ACP-Essex) , endorsed a controversial income tax.

Hard as it is to believe, the aftermath of the 2008 financial collapse has been far worse for Connecticut. U.S. Labor Department figures indicate that it will be at least the end of next year until all of the jobs loss during the recession will be recovered and over the last 18 months the state budget keeps going into deficit in a way that Godfrey says has been unprecedented.

Less than six months ago, Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Stamford) and legislators took steps to erase a projected $930 million shortfall for the current fiscal year and earlier this month it was reported that there is a $78 million gap.

“There are signs of a turnaround [in the economy] that I would have preferred to come sooner,” said Godfrey, a Democrat, who is running for a 15^th term this fall in the 110^th District, which mostly encompasses downtown Danbury. He’s opposed by Republican Emanuela Palmares, who sought a seat on the Danbury Board of Education last fall and has been going door-to-door with a team of volunteers since June.

The district is 42 percent Latino, 33 percent of the homes have someone 60 years of age or older residing in them and there are a high number of single people.

Twenty-eight years after initially being elected, there are only three current members of the lower chamber that have served longer than Godfrey, who had been a legislative staff aide, a vice president of the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Danbury City Council before ascending to the state Capitol.

Godfrey said at the time of the 2008 financial crisis, revenues plummeted by 28 percent in a state that is closely tied to Wall Street.

However, he said in recent months more people have re-entered the job market and there has been an increase in construction activity.

“Corporate profits have increased,” Godfrey said. “But I wish that they were hiring more people.”

Republican state Senate Leader Len Fasano (R-34) of North Haven recently told The New Haven Register that the major reason for the budget woes is that the state employee collective bargaining units have the Democratic caucuses in “a headlock” and the majority party, which holds an 86-64 advantage with one vacancy in the House and a 21-15 edge in the Senate, has been unwilling to make structural changes to lower the costs of state operations.

Critics have said the state employees receive generous benefit packages and have recently refused to make concessions to balance a tattered budget.

Godfrey acknowledged that not all of the savings in the employee package were realized under Malloy’s 2011 “shared sacrifice” plan to offset a projected $3.5 billion budget deficit.

CT Mirror recently reported that of the 3,000 layoffs of state employees announced this spring to offset a recent budget shortfall only 1,100 of them had been carried out to date.

“I don’t know the answer to that,” Godfrey said when asked about why so few layoffs had been made.

Godfrey said the state employee collective bargaining units have “a lot of leverage” at the state Capitol, but no more than some other interest groups.

He said he opposes Republican proposals to privatize more state services.

Godfrey said he said he’s concerned about recent efforts to privatize some functions of the state Department of Social Services since as a recent story in Governing magazine indicated, “It doesn’t work because some segments get denied services.”

He said former Gov. John Rowland (R-Middlebury) tried to privatize the state Department of Motor Vehicles some years ago and the contractor sold private information “to car dealerships.”

Republican calls for state employee furlough days to lower labor costs?

“‘You’re sick today and we’re closed,’ ” Godfrey said. “ ‘You have to wait until Monday to get your services.’ ”

“It doesn’t make sense,” the state representative said.

“I don’t think the answer to too much unemployment is firing people,” Godfrey said of Republican proposals to decrease the state work force.

He said he supports saving money, where possible, by consolidating state operations, such as the reform of the probate court that former Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R-Brookfield) signed and which took effect in early 2011.

“No one has been denied services,” Godfrey said of the system of fewer probate judges with larger districts.

Godfrey contends that Connecticut is still suffering from a revenue problem.

He noted that a recent report from the General Assembly’s Office of Fiscal Analysis, its budget arm, indicated that corporate business tax revenue as a percentage of total net tax revenue has declined from 20 percent in 1989 to about six percent for the current fiscal year.

“These are the major corporations that we’re talking about,” Godfrey said. “If they’re complaining about their tax burden, then we need to ask them what is equitable,” he said in response to comments that Connecticut’s tax structure is driving businesses out of the state. Godfrey said that corporate tax rates in Connecticut are lower or comparable to those in neighboring New York state and Massachusetts.

In response to concerns that the tax structure is causing wealthy residents to leave the state because of their tax burden, Godfrey said a report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy indicated that the top 1 percent of wage earners in Connecticut pay a smaller share of the taxes than every other demographic group, including the lowest 20 percent of wage-earners.

Although Connecticut’s unemployment rate is higher than it was a year ago, which Godfrey partly attributes to more people entering the job market, the metro Danbury figure is the lowest in the state and has been for some time.

Regarding the Hat City’s economy, he said he is sympathetic to concerns by Danbury Hospital, which has been the city’s largest employer for a generation, regarding reductions in state aid to hospitals which has cost the facility “tens of millions of dollars.”

“It’s a struggle for making sure that patients are taken care of,” Godfrey said.

He said he is seeking to increase the state’s research and development tax credit, which was reduced two years ago. State Reps. Dan Carter (R-2) of Bethel and Stephen Harding (R-107) of Brookfield, whose district include small parts of Danbury, have expressed concern about the impact on Boehringer-Ingelheim, the pharmaceutical company that is the city’s second larger employer.

“It is wrong to tax innovation that hasn’t happened yet,” Godfrey said. “I haven’t been able to persuade the Malloy Administration to change that.”

Although not ranked among the top 10 employers in the city, Godfrey said he is impressed with the growth of Fuel Cell Energy, which has increased its work force considerably over the last four years with a grand total of 750 employees now combined in its operations in Danbury and Torrington. He said the company has secured contracts with the U.S Navy and the city of Bridgeport and the Torrington manufacturing plant has been on three shifts for a while.

Regarding the governor, Godfrey has downgraded his evaluation of Malloy from the ‘B-plus’ he awarded in June 2014 when the governor was seeking a second term, to a current “‘C’-plus to ‘C’.”

“We’re frustrated,” the state representative said. “He’s told department heads not to answer questions from legislators. It all has to go through his office.”

He said other recent governors, all of whom - unlike Malloy, the former mayor of Stamford - served in the General Assembly before ascending to the governorship, “understood the need to work with legislators individually and collectively,” Godfrey said. “Even after six years, Dannel Malloy hasn’t learned that lesson. It’s a point of constant friction between legislators and the administration.”

Godfrey said he admires the governor’s work on civil rights and minimum wage legislation.

However, he added that since a federal investigation on fund-raising by Malloy’s re-election campaign began in July, the governor will not be able to be vetted for a cabinet position in a Hillary Clinton administration, as some had predicted months ago, and he will serve out the final two years of his second term, but with a 24 percent approval rating will not be in a position to seek a third term.

Godfrey said state Comptroller Kevin Lembo of Guilford, former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz of Middletown, state Sen. Ted Kennedy Jr. of Branford and Middletown Mayor Dan Drew have been among those mentioned as possible Democratic gubernatorial contenders for 2018.

There has been media speculation that the Senate and House could turn Republican considering the low approval ratings for Malloy and the General Assembly. However, Godfrey takes a different view. “There a lot of voters saying they’re going to vote for Hillary Clinton and go straight Democratic,” he declared. “I think the Democrats will pick up seats.”

Regarding his own work, Godfrey said he has been a strong advocate for education, noting that Danbury’s funding under the state formula has increased steadily through the years and that he and state Rep. David Arconti (D-109) of Danbury recently secured additional bond money to help pay for the new Freshmen Academy at Danbury High School.