Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s farewell budget address didn’t include any big policy ideas or solutions to the $3 billion budget deficit that the next governor and legislature will inherit.
That’s what both Democrats and Republicans said following Rell’s speech Wednesday on revisions to the $18.91 billion budget.
Rell announced in November that she won’t be seeking re-election in 2010, so Wednesday’s speech was her last annual address to a joint session of the General Assembly.
House Majority Leader Denise Merrill, D‑Mansfield, said she heard the governor present some options, but she didn’t hear any real arguments for fixing the budget deficit.
“I’m disappointed the commission won’t get going until the end of 2010,” Tom Foley, the Greenwich businessman seeking the Republican nomination for governor, said. “I would have liked her to set a goal to take $1 billion out of the budget.”
