HARTFORD -- On the historic day of his inauguration as Connecticut's first Democratic governor in two decades, Dannel Patrick Malloy issued a call for shared sacrifice and optimism as the state faces one of the largest budget deficits in its history.
In a day filled with pomp and pageantry as the state legislature opened its 2011 session, lawmakers gave Malloy the benefit of the doubt as they await the details next month on his plans for closing a projected budget deficit of $3.5 billion for the next fiscal year.
In a 21-minute State of the State Address that was interrupted by applause more than 15 times, Malloy did not mention any details about raising taxes or cutting spending. Instead, he said the state is facing "a crisis of historic proportions'' that places the state at the "crossroads of crisis and opportunity.''
"I believe that Connecticut's best days are ahead -- if we join together in what must be a shared, emerging movement for rational, honest, achievable change,'' Malloy told the crowd of more than 2,000 people at the state Armory in Hartford after being sworn in at 2:40 p.m. "A movement that restores economic vitality, creates jobs, and returns Connecticut to fiscal solvency by establishing our means and living within them."
In an inaugural speech that sounded many of the same themes Malloy would address less than two hours later in an address to the full legislature, Malloy said: "Today I see an economic crisis and an employment crisis, both fueled by an unfriendly employer environment, a lack of educational resources, a deteriorating transportation system, and an enormous budget crisis of historic proportions. All coddled by a habit of political sugarcoating that has passed our problems onto the next generation.''
Malloy added, "Well, ladies and gentlemen, the next generation is here.''
The crowd applauded.
Senate Republican leader John McKinney said flatly that Malloy was correct that the legislature has sugarcoated the problems and pushed off important decisions into the future.
But House Speaker Chris Donovan, a Democrat who has led the House chamber for the past two years, did not agree that the Democratic-controlled legislature has been "sugarcoating'' the state's fiscal problems with one-shot revenues, accounting maneuvers, and budgetary gimmicks that masked the true problems.
"I don't care about sugarcoating,'' Donovan told reporters after Malloy's speech. "I don't want to answer about sugarcoating. I don't even know what sugarcoating means. Well, actually I do. We used to put sugar on our cereal. We don't do that any more. That's rhetoric people use. We balanced the budget. We used our rainy day fund We used federal funds. ... I'm proud of our budget. I don't care about words that people say. I'm caring about what we need to do moving forward.''