Focus Groups on State Budget

The political spin is simple, Democrats are saying that Governor Rell used tax payer funds to conduct a political poll. Governor Rell is saying that the focus group was part of a larger effort to study the state budgeting process and how to better manage it. I will now pause here for deep reflection on this issue. Yeah right. Okay everyone in Hartford is so dysfunctional they don’t see that having an academic study on the state budgeting process is like playing solitaire while in legislative voting session. Oh, wait.

Here’s a novel idea, why not actually work on the budget? I will now go off to study how to write a blog. Here’s what the Courant reported:

“This project is about the state budget process. It’s about how to improve it. It’s about how to communicate it and development it,” he told The Associated Press. “It’s about streamlining state government and how to accomplish that.”

In one e-mail, Dautrich said he planned to ask focus group participants about what they expect from good leaders and what decisions would give them confidence in Connecticut’s leadership. Another recommended Rell stick by her initial position of opposing any tax increases to balance the budget.

And they used email for these weighty ponderings. Here’s a communication streamline idea, use twitter. An imagining:

@MJRell: feeling like public not happy with me.

@Dautirch: survey says, you’re right.

@MJRell: should i sign budget?

@Dautirch: magic 8 ball says wait.

@LMoody: let’s send out a fundraising letter on this

Maybe they could do a facebook poll too. From the Courant:

“We’re disappointed that the governor has been using state dollars for political purposes,” said House Speaker Chris Donovan, D-Meriden, who did not rule out an investigation by a legislative committee into the matter.

Other Democrats suggested the state auditors or Office of State Ethics should investigate whether Rell’s administration committed any state violations.

In a written statement, Rell praised Dautrich for coming up with ideas to reduce state spending and working with agency commissioners to find savings. While not addressing the controversy directly about whether Dautrich provided political advice on the state’s dime, she said her administration “worked very hard to ensure that the work he did and the questions he asked were policy-based, dealing with budget, spending and taxing issues.”

The entire two-year project is reported to have cost $220,000.