Legislature fails in its basic charge

Connecticut’s General Assembly is a dysfunctional failure. We are sure that putting a budget together for an entire state — even one as small as Connecticut — is a complicated task. And it is a daunting one, with the state facing a $2.3 billion deficit pr

So complicated and daunting that 187 elected adults working since January have been unable to do it as of Wednesday.

Maybe 187 is too unwieldy a number and that may be why it has come down to one adult, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, to wade in where others fear to tread and get Connecticut moving in the right direction.

Connecticut’s new fiscal year begins on July 1 and whatever, if anything, happens before then will be confirmation that this group of people has failed the state and the residents who entrusted them with a responsibility.

Since January, rather than trading ideas, listening, compromising and producing, legislative so-called leaders have traded insults, yelled, dug their heels in, and produced nothing but gas. And it continues. So now, it is up to Malloy, who has emerged in a soft light, to take matters into his own hands and likely impose an executive order that will keep the state functioning until the rest of the group can come up with a plan.

And since Malloy cannot unilaterally increase revenue, the order he’ll impose will reflect the $5 billion budget deficit Connecticut now faces.

The spending cuts he’ll have to make are not pretty. His executive order would, for instance, eliminate millions of dollars for summer jobs for youth, an unpleasant prospect for the summer for the state’s cities; would eliminate elderly housing assistance; supplemental hospital funding; funding for private social service providers; and business assistance programs through the Department of Economic and Community Development.

As late as Wednesday, Malloy was still appealing to House leaders Themis Klarides, RDerby, the minority leader, and Speaker of the House, state Rep. Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, to get a group together that would support a mini-budget that would provide some breathing room and give the ditherers another three months.

The speaker, though, doubtful that he could put enough Democrats in seats to hold off a Republican charge — they, at least, have produced a budget, though Malloy has vowed to veto it — will not consent to a vote.

In a legislatively approved mini-budget, revenue estimates could be increased and the drastic cuts in the executive order could be softened.

Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, said he is prepared to bring the Senate into session on Thursday, but Democratic House leaders have him stymied. “No one wants the governor to run the state by executive order.” Looney said.

Given the performance of the 187 people entrusted with making big decisions, the governor governing by executive order might not be such a bad idea.

The spending cuts he’ll have to make are not pretty. His executive order would, for instance, eliminate millions of dollars for summer jobs for youth, an unpleasant prospect for the summer for the state’s cities.