No heroes in Hartford

The WRA ran this editorial on how a state legislator could achieve "hero status".

All they'd have to do is obey an obscure 28-year-old law requiring them to review state spending practices. Presto, spending needs would decline, and the impact of the expected 2007-09 income-tax bomb would diminish, too.

But could this be done? Why wouldn't someone do it?

The obvious answer is they're afraid of goring someone's ox, lest their own become vulnerable. Every agency, every program, has friends in the legislature. Moreover, reducing state government jobs is always problematical, especially for Democrats who have a deep, codependent relationship with the public-employee unions.

So I'm sure nothing will happen. However, there is at least one legislator who is willing to speak the truth about why this law continues to go unenforced via a series of "postponement votes."

Deputy House Speaker Robert Godfrey, D-Danbury, an opponent of postponement bills dating to the early 1990s, summed it up in two words: "We're lazy."

I appreciate Rep. Godfrey's candor.

Tim White