After Gov. Malloy announced his budget in February, our state legislators had a golden opportunity to work together in bipartisan collaboration. They had the starting point of common ground that the governor’s cuts to social services were unacceptable. 

Instead, the Republicans crafted their version at the expense of state employees and the Democrats crafted their version with significant tax increases. With opposing views created, lines drawn in the sand, exclusionary and confrontational tactics, and threats of doom and gloom, common ground and collaboration became next to impossible. Political ideologies came before people and the common good of all. 

How about next time, getting in a room, leaving labels and ideologies outside, setting guiding principles with intended outcomes, and collaborating from the start? Let’s call on our elected representatives to commit to work across the aisle at the beginning of the process, not try to negotiate and compromise after the fact. 

We are all in this together and deserve nothing less than the best thinking, ideas and inspiration, throughout the process that everyone owns. Corporations call it “strategic planning and budgeting.”

Lucira Jane Nebelung

East Lyme