Opinion: A case for a budget that bets our future on small businesses

Matthew Zagaja is a lawyer who also is a member of the Wethersfield Democratic Town Committee. He can be reached on Twitter @mzagaja.

It has been sad to read the aggressive posturing about the state budget from the business community and now from the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities. Connecticut has always been a place where we have tackled our toughest challenges together. I worry that this could be the one time that we do not manage to surmount these challenges and people are merely scrambling to preserve their own interests. We can do better.

This conundrum is not a 2015 conundrum, it is the result of choices that were made in the past. Some of these choices involved hiring employees and agreeing to provide them with a stable retirement. Another portion involves choices about money we bonded. These expenses are supposed to be investments that pay returns in the future. Our word is our bond, so we generally do not get to change these.

The rest of the budget involves the day-to-day operating expenses of our government. Salaries are paid, pens are purchased, water and electricity are funneled into buildings. We have flexibility here: we can turn off the lights at the DMV, we can choose to eliminate services for needy children, or stop funding foreclosure mediation programs. In a world where we have already been cutting spending, the trade-offs look increasingly bleak.

See the complete story at CT News Junkie.