Budget battle messaging shapes November elections

Some media outlets expressed surprise last week when Senate GOP Leader Len Fasano lashed out against the Connecticut Business & Industry Association for backing the Democrat's fiscal 2017 budget.

While it's unusual for a Republican leader to publicly go after Connecticut's largest business lobby (both tend to be fiscally conservative and pro-business in their policy positions) the motives behind the outburst make perfect sense.

For Fasano, it's all about positioning Republicans for the November elections. If the minority GOP wants to gain a majority in the House or Senate it must market itself as a better, more fiscally conservative steward of state finances. A no tax increase budget that significantly slashes spending — and gains business-community support — makes the Republican pitch a slightly harder sell.

Fasano's chief complaint was that CBIA was backing a $19.76 billion budget that failed to make the structural reforms necessary to prevent an unending wave of future deficits — a trend that has plagued the state in recent years.

“CBIA's bar has been lowered so much that any budget without direct tax increases is all they need to claim victory,” Fasano said. “I believe the people and businesses of our state deserve better.”

CBIA CEO Joseph Brennan countered that while the budget may be imperfect, any plan that reduces short- and long-term spending and doesn't raise taxes again is a good one, particularly in the wake of two historic tax hikes since 2011.

Both Fasano and Brennan are accurate in their characterizations of the budget issue. The spending plan negotiated between majority House and Senate Democrats and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy will help close a nearly $1 billion projected deficit in fiscal 2017 without raising taxes, but still leaves behind billion-dollar deficits in fiscals 2018 and 2019, according to the nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis.

Some of the budget cuts will create permanent, long-term savings and help lower out-year deficits, but others are more fleeting. For example, the budget requires Malloy to find more than $200 million in undefined savings, according to the Connecticut Mirror. Republican calls for spending and bonding caps were also ignored.

Democrats are also slashing government spending without offering a larger vision for how the state will be able to get out of its economic quagmire. But they are playing smart election-year politics by shying away from another round of tax hikes, and instead relying on a more fiscally conservative spending plan.

Republicans are hoping fed-up taxpayers will head to the voting booth this November with the 2011 and 2015 Democrat-imposed tax increases — and the threat of future tax hikes — fresh on their minds.

At stake are majorities in both the House and Senate, of which Democrats currently control by 87-64 and 21-15 majorities, respectively. All 187 seats are up for grabs this year.

For its part, CBIA had little power to control the budget negotiations and it would be unwise for the group to blast Democrats in a year they actually showed some fiscal restraint. Its members, however, are cautiously aware of the continuing budget pressures Connecticut faces as growing debt costs threaten the state's fiscal outlook. Businesses will demand further structural reforms in 2017.

Fasano, too, did what he felt was necessary to differentiate his party from the Democrats.

The spat between CBIA and Fasano didn't signify a split between the business community and GOP. It was simply a show of political theater during a tense and important election year.

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