Rudy Marconi has a billion-dollar new idea. Not all of his fellow aspirants for governor do.
Marconi’s idea: Instead of continuing to slash Connecticut’s government to the bone, bring back highway tolls (but with the modern drive-through plazas, like the one pictured).
As the 2010 campaign for governor rolls into high gear with the new year, Democrat Marconi is one of at least 10 candidates struggling to distinguish themselves and emerge from the pack.
No one among the declared and “exploratory” candidates has yet emerged as a clear frontrunner. No one has captured the public’s imagination yet (it’s early) or draped his or her campaign in a fresh new idea.
When the Independent asked candidates to name one Big New Idea of their campaigns, two candidates responded with specific, detailed, large-scale, fresh proposals: Marconi, Ridgefield’s first selectman; and Gary LeBeau, a seven-term East Hartford state senator. LeBeau wants basically to demolish the legislature, reducing it to one chamber with 60 full-time members.
Former House Speaker Jim Amann had a new program to offer too, on a more modest scale. (Two candidates failed to respond to requests for comment: Republicans Michael Fedele and Tom Foley. Democrat Juan Figueroa, who’s expected to announce his candidacy soon, wasn’t yet fielding questions about a platform.)
The Post-Kluttz Era?
Marconi gave his answer in one word: “Tolls.” Then he explained. (Click on the play arrow to watch the conversation.)
Connecticut abolished tolls on I‑95 in 1985, then on other highways soon after. Legislators did so after a tractor-trailer driver named Kluttz killed seven people in a crash at the Startford toll plaza after he fell asleep behind the wheel.
“Bring tolls back,” Marconi said when posed the big-idea question at a political gathering in New Haven last week. “We need to generate revenue in Connecticut. Everybody’s talking about ‘cut cut cut.’”
Marconi advocated placing the tolls on interstates at Connecticut’s borders. He doesn’t advocate a return to toll booths. Modern toll plazas enable drivers to whip through at 55 or 65 miles per hour. Either they pay through E‑Z Pass or they receive bills later after the toll plaza camera records their license plate numbers.
The state could generate $1 billion a year that way, Marconi said.
“We don’t have a problem traveling to Massachusetts and paying tolls there. We don’t have a problem traveling to New York State” and paying, he said.
Fewer Cooks
Gary LeBeau (pictured) wants to make Connecticut the second state in the country, after Nebraska, to make laws with a unicameral legislature. He’d combine the state House of Representatives and Senate into a single chamber. He’d cut the total number of legislators from 187 to 60; and pay them more to make them full-time, in order to attract higher-quality people who don’t need to keep running to another job in between making laws.
Under LeBeau’s plan, the legislators would probably by limited to three four-year terms. That would enable them to stop running for reelection continually, while also preventing a class of permanent professional politicians.
In the end, the Capitol would operate more efficiently and effectively, and cost a lot less to taxpayers, LeBeau argued.
He came to that conclusion after watching the leigslature up close for a long time — 13 years as a state senator, four years before that as a state representative.
“Every year we start fresh like it’s brand new,” he said. “We introduce bills. Then nine-tenths of them die. The next year we come back. The same bills come back. We have hearings on them.”
LeBeau would cut the number of legislative committees in half. Appropriations and Finance, for instance, would become one committee, Ways and Means.
The large number of committees enables the House speaker to give supporters more leadership positions, LeBeau said. He argued that government would work more efficiently — and legislators would be more accountable — in his scaled-down version.
One objection to smaller legislatures: They’re less democratic, because legislators represent larger areas of constituents. LeBeau countered that state senators represent 90,000 people; in his scheme every 60,000 people in Connecticut would have a state legislator. They’d just no longer have both a state senator and a state representative. And with fewer committees, those legislators’ committee votes would mean more, making the legislators more accountable to constituents back home.
Amann: A Nurse Idea
Some gubernatorial candidates said big ideas are coming; they just need to be fleshed out in coming weeks. Former Democratic state House Speaker Jim Amann, for instance, said he’s releasing a job-creation “blueprint” in coming weeks with lots of details about how to create new positions and how to pay for them.
In the meantime, he offered another new idea aimed at two challenges: keeping young people in the state and addressing a shortage of nurses. The state faces an estimated shortage of 75,000 nurses, Amann said.
Under his plan, the state would spend $20 to $30 million a year over five years to help new graduates with nursing degrees to pay housing costs and college loans if they agree to stay and work as nurses in Connecticut for two years. “The return on that,” Amann said, “is going be five to one.
Dannel Malloy of Stamford said he, too, has a jobs plan he intends to roll out soon. He offered no dollar figures or details yet, beyond creating jobs, lots of jobs, through state investments in roads, mass transit, schools, and bridges.
The newest entrant in the race, Simsbury First Selectwoman Mary Glassman, said her idea is “regional cooperation”: more state incentives to cities and towns to regionalize services like emergency dispatching.
“The next big idea,” offered Susan Bysiewicz, the current secretary of the state, “is just getting back to basics. I don’t think there is one silver bullet or some secret formula to fixing the state. I think we need a leader who’s going to work hard, somebody who’s going to make tough decisions, and someone who will build consensus and get things done. It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to require some shared sacrifices to make this happen on everybody’s part.”
“My big idea: ‘Let’s get back on offense,’” said Democrat Ned Lamont.
Lamont said he’d have Connecticut aggressively recruit businesses from other states.
“Young people are getting poached away out of state. Businesses are leaving,” he said. “Let’s tell life sciences and green tech why they want to be in Connecticut. Other states are poaching our businesses. We’re going to go out there to get jobs to relocate here, just as they did in Research Triangle and Route 128 and Silicon Valley.”
One candidate who offered a detailed big idea is running for lieutenant governor, not governor.
That candidate, Kevin Lembo (pictured), said state government would “easily” save $1 billion — and deliver better care for people — by combining all its different health insurance programs into one purchasing pool with one formulary, or list of approved medications.
“We can’t continue to spend $7 to $8 billion in seven or eight different ways,” Lembo argued. “Taxpayers rely on us to do that in a more thoughtful way.”
No matter how much money you give the government, its never enough. How did we ever survive without state income tax, lottery and casino money? What did they do with that windfall? Did they lower my tax burden to the state? Answer. No, they grew the government 100% and are asking for more money to support this new age job program.
I got a suggestion. How about finding ways to do more with less?