"No more badmouthing the great state of Connecticut!" - Governor Ned Lamont, February 5, 2020.
Some say it's cheerleading, and I say go for it!
I truly believe there is a time and a place for all kinds of statements and visions. I'm not trying to get into the politics of a reaction to the Governor's speech. However, I truly believe there are many things that are great about our state and there are lots of things that need work. But as parents, we know if you only tell your children what they are doing wrong then they will lose confidence and begin to think they are not worthwhile individuals and the spiral begins. Without a set of expectations, some vision and some goal setting, no wonder so many of our young folks just don't know what they want to do when they grow up! They don't know how to make it happen or how to plan ahead.
I'm so glad we have a governor who is trying to be the parent here. He is talking about what is working, what is coming up next, what expectations he holds for the state and what we can do to make our state the greatest place in New England.
Both the Governor and the legislature know what's got to get fixed and where the improvement
needs to be made. Let the election campaigns talk about what's not right and what's got to be changed. For now, with two more years of Governor Lamont's term, I'd rather see all of the stakeholders roll up their sleeves and work together to improve those things we all know about. We need to work on the huge issues of solid waste, housing, workforce development, securing a future for the next generation of kids and securing a place for both young professionals and our senior citizens.
Not to get into the budget and the Governor's 2020 vision for the session since I know other stories of this edition will get into those details, but I do want to mention that the business community, hospitals and cities and town sure are feeling grateful today. In past budgets they took the brunt of financial hits, stiff regulations on anything that moved and the shrinking of the available workforce due to those concerns. Life might not be perfect
but sometimes just the fact that no action is proposed might be a good action!
I'm hoping as the legislature begins its process of kicking the tires of the Governor's initiatives, they take a minute to think about how they can add value to the ideas to make them better and workable. There are also a few important issues that the Governor didn't cover, and that's not so bad. The legislature can now put their own mark on those issues and create solutions to make things work better or reflect the fast changing world we all live in. I did notice that there were not many legislators, if any, declaring the any of the Governor's initiatives would be "dead on arrival." That's got to be a good start!
Quite often when people ask me what I do and I tell them I'm a lobbyist they ask, "Well, what do you do?" I tell them I'm a researcher, an educator, a marketer, a problem solver, a firefighter but most of all a voice, an ear, a set of eyes and an engineer looking to make something happen to make a problem better or create a new opportunity. It always works better when the Governor's office, the legislators, the media and the lobbyists work in tandem to solve what needs to be fixed or create those opportunities for not only CT residents but the business and state in general to grow and thrive.
That's good politics! Let's start now.