By DAVID M. HALBFINGER
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As governor, Mr. Malloy laid down ground rules. He said spending, which was on a course to grow by $1.8 billion, would remain flat. He said he would not borrow to cover operating expenses, as the state previously did. He promised to pay the state’s pension obligations fully and to make costly catch-up payments for years they were skipped. He ruled out early retirement plans, saying they really did not save anything and only stretched the pension system thinner. And he imposed strict accounting standards to bring more transparency to the state’s balance sheet.
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But Mr. Malloy does not apologize for proposing tax increases.
“It’s what’s right for my state,” he said. “Connecticut would not be Connecticut if we cut $3.5 billion out of the budget. We are a strong, generous, hopeful people. We’d be taking $800 million out of education. You can’t do that in this state. You’d have to gouge the Medicaid system. You’d have to close 25 percent of the nursing homes. What do you do with people?”
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Mr. Malloy first went at Mr. Christie publicly a few weeks ago, after hearing that the New Jersey governor had openly discussed the possibility of letting states seek bankruptcy protection to break contracts with unions. “Insanity,” Mr. Malloy called the idea in an interview, saying it could undermine the municipal bond market. “It’s a political statement, and it’s a very dangerous one in my opinion.”
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