Democrats seek to rein in the watchdogs
As daily briefings seek to update the public on COVID-19-related issues,
House Bill 6327 is advancing through the Connecticut General Assembly to limit oversight of a taxpayer-funded watchdog agency and remove transparency from governmental functions.
A disturbing trend by Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration in handing out no-bid contracts to favored public relations professionals through the Democratic governor’s emergency powers and a recent attempt to undermine the long-standing independent State Properties Review Board are just the latest examples. The details laid out in The Hartford Courant should trouble anyone who cares about transparency in government.
These efforts by those in charge of state government further diminish public faith in how taxpayer money is spent. The irony, of course, is that it was traditionally the Democrats who were credited with championing oversight in the wake of the Watergate scandal in the 1970s. Now the Democrats running Hartford are comfortable, even intent, on neutering those entities charged with keeping an eye on the huge bureaucracy that is state government.
Under former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, there were persistent and obvious efforts to give oversight agencies short shrift when it came to providing needed resources. This included the state Ethics Commission and the State Elections Enforcement Commission, which regularly came before legislative committees to protest cuts to their budgets.
Everyone knew these cuts would result in less regulatory scrutiny of elected officials, the governor, members of the House and Senate and political challengers; in other words, the very people who could hold their purse strings.
The Lamont administration began its assault with the creation of the Connecticut Partnership, a well-intended public-private partnership to advance educational initiatives. At the urging of the Lamont administration, Democrats created this public corporation and exempted it from state ethics and disclosure laws. Unfortunately, the partnership collapsed amid criticism of this exemption and the contentious and secretive departure of its CEO.
House Republicans have proposed two polices this session to not only subject all quasi-public entities to the disclosure laws under the state Freedom of Information Act but also expand the SPRB’s oversight to all quasi-public agencies: House bills 6193 and 6194. At the same time, the Lamont administration is seeking to reduce SPRB authority, claiming the board is spending too much time and money as it vets proposed real estate purchases and construction projects. Nonsense.
The board, established in 1975, the year after Watergate blew up, has saved Connecticut taxpayers an estimated $86 million that otherwise would have been spent on bloated or ill-conceived construction projects. For more than a half-century, it has served as the independent backstop for the state of Connecticut to approve, deny or modify projects that have come before it.
Now, under Gov. Lamont, this administration wants to nullify this valuable asset to allow politically appointed vassals to quiet yet another time-tested, independent body that has the best interests of Connecticut in mind. The Lamont administration is not a new actor on this scene. It just reinforces what took place under the one-party rule of the Malloy administration. After all, politics is the art of the possible. The watchdog agencies perform vital functions for taxpayers and voters. Their powers should be broadened, not curtailed.