Budget pressures, wrong answers

It’s understandable that our leaders in Hartford are now scrambling to close a projected budgetary deficit of $144 million for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy had hoped for a surplus (who wouldn’t?), but the cold reality is not supporting his wishes.

Finding revenues to fill the gap, however, through the sale of alcohol on Sundays and later into the evening on other days, and by promoting online gambling, is a short-sighted approach. It’s been a tough year for Connecticut, what with a downgrade of its debt rating by Moody’s and a monumental struggle to find ways to mitigate the budget deficit. That doesn’t excuse undermining both the physical and fiscal health of those who are most vulnerable in the state: A regressive tax on drinkers and gamblers should not be the answer to insufficient revenues and too-high expenses.  To view the long-term effects of such policies, one only need visit Atlantic City, off the boardwalk.

At first Malloy stood firm with state employees on their salaries, benefits and pensions, but he agreed too soon to a deal with their unions that must now be haunting him. Let’s hope his trip to Europe to sell Connecticut as a destination for worldwide businesses is surprisingly successful.

Kent does the right thing

Kent residents had a sobering discussion at the town’s annual meeting Jan. 19 on the need to add a ladder truck to the equipment of the Kent Volunteer Fire Department, as Asher Pavel reported last week in this newspaper. Fire Chief Matt Starr made it clear the primary, really the only, reason to consider spending a lot of money on such a truck is safety: safety of anyone trapped in a burning building, including both trapped occupants and  firefighters.

Until such an event happens, it’s hard for non-firefighters to see all the dangers that can arise in emergency situations. But for firefighters, their training prepares them to understand all that can go wrong and to find ways to circumvent disaster and rescue those who need it. It is to the credit of Kent town officials that they have given this purchase the serious consideration it deserves, knowing how difficult it is in hard financial times to convince voters to spend money unless it’s absolutely necessary.

A tragedy shouldn’t have to happen before safety concerns are addressed. Kudos to First Selectman Bruce Adams and all the Kent town and fire department officials who are taking steps now to be better prepared for possible emergencies.

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