Managing for the Long Term

An Interview with The Honorable Dannel P. Malloy, Governor, State of

EDITORS’ NOTE Dannel Patrick That is the biggest challenge that are being made by Yale – so we predict Malloy graduated Magna Cum I face. People will give lip service to that Connecticut will play a larger role in bio- Laude from and wanting or accepting change but they science and life sciences as we continue to continued on to Boston College will fi ght you to the death to keep it make those investments. Law School. Governor Malloy be- from happening. We are committed to reinventing our- came a prosecutor in , What efforts are you mak- selves – looking at and playing off of our New York, serving for four years ing on education reform and why strengths but not ignoring our weaknesses, as an Assistant District Attorney. hasn’t there been more of a nation- many of which have suffered from a lack of Returning to the city of Stamford, wide impact on this issue? investment in intellectual infrastructure and in he served on the Boards of Finance Connecticut, in particular, oper- physical infrastructure for an extended period and Education before running for ates schools on a 150-year-old model. of time. Mayor in 1995 and winning in a In some rare cases, we have created You have been successful in bringing landslide victory. Governor Malloy The Hon. Dannel P. Malloy schools on a different model but then people together for action. Why has this was Stamford’s longest serving refuse to replicate it. We know what been such a challenge for Washington? Mayor, covering a 14-year period from 1995 to works in education reform and in driving higher The problem with Washington is everyone 2009. On November 2, 2010, Dannel Malloy performance in urban environments; we just is managing for short-term results, and the prob- was elected the 88th Governor of the State of lack the will to make the systemic changes re- lem with Connecticut over the past 16 years has Connecticut and the first governor to have quired. That’s the battle I’m facing now. also been that everyone was managing for short- been elected under the state’s clean elections Are the issues needed to create true term results, as well as personal popularity. program. Governor Malloy is a former trustee of reform in health care being addressed and I manage for the long term; the rest will The United States Conference of Mayors, a for- what more should be done? take care of itself. You have limited time to be mer President of the Connecticut Council Health care is also a model that goes back a leader and should exercise that leadership of Municipalities, and a former member of the 100 years in the U.S. and has been slow to to the greatest extent to make the changes Stamford Cultural Development Organization. adapt. But now the absolute pressure of the necessary to allow your corporation, your fi nancial requirements are causing changes to community or your state to sustain itself. With the fi scal pressures on all U.S. States, happen more rapidly. Do you worry that talent coming out of how is Connecticut positioned today? There are states doing a better job and school isn’t going to enter public service? We’ve been focused on fi scal responsibil- states doing a worse job. In some areas, we’re My fear is that we shape leadership based ity, which means we had to begin the process of doing a better job and are preparing for health on the current experiences in Washington, so undoing years of mistakes that were made and care reform as it is currently packaged. But we call people to public service who think decisions that deferred leadership. change has to come; we cannot afford as a that replicating that behavior makes sense – it We continue in some sense to have a crisis state government to do things the same way doesn’t. and we have done things that some people don’t we’ve always done them. There are folks in The idea that we’re going to manage for re- necessarily fully understand. Our renegotiation federal government that want to shift addi- sults every two years based on who can control with our employees will lead to billions of dol- tional costs to state governments, which are Congress or every four years based on who can lars in savings over the next 20 years. Our com- less able to absorb them. That will see us join- be President makes no sense. mitment to Generally Accepted Accounting ing a race to the bottom and not being able to There is nothing noble about what is going Principles will ensure that future leaders of provide the level of service that the American on. And there is nothing far-reaching or long the State of Connecticut do not make the mis- people want us to provide. term that is going on in Washington now. takes that were made in the past. Beginning the What advantages does Connecticut offer But if we continue to grow a class of public process of appropriately funding our pension and why is it an attractive place for companies servants who believe that’s normal or appropri- defi cit will save us an additional $5 billion. to come? ate, then Democracy in the U.S. is in trouble. We’re making smarter decisions than the Connecticut has a great location, be- Are you looking toward the future or are State has demonstrated an ability to make in the tween Boston and New York, and is on the you primarily concerned with the present? past. Now we pivot to job creation and retention, Boston to Washington transit route. We have I focus on tomorrow by what I can get and concentrating on our strengths while address- one of the most highly trained and educated done today; that’s the fi duciary responsibility ing our weaknesses. Then we turn to education workforces in America; and we continue to I owe my citizens. Anybody can be popular reform, which we’re in the midst of now. In the have strength in precision manufacturing and manage for results on a 30-day to one-year relatively short span of a year and a half, we will and financial services, including traditional basis. But it is costly if you decide that being have taken on three of the biggest challenges that lines of insurance, as well as health insurance personally popular is more important than the our State has been facing for the past 20 years. companies, which are evolving into technol- welfare of the next generation and I will not Is it challenging to change people’s ogy companies. We’re also making massive do that.• mindset when things have been done a cer- investments in bioscience at the University tain way for a long time? of Connecticut – matching those investments The Connecticut State Capitol building in Hartford, Connecticut