Governor-elect Dan Malloy admitted Thursday that he was a little surprised the transition budget Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell would be handing over next week is just a menu of options, instead of a full-blown budget document.
He said he was expecting a complete budget, such as what would have been done if there hadn’t been a new administration moving in.
Unable to comment much further on a document he has yet to receive, Malloy said he was busy moving forward with the transition, which was stifled briefly by incomplete vote tallies and a close election.
“We’re a little bit behind schedule because the election didn’t get decided,” Malloy said as he finished a taping of The Real Story with Fox CT‘s Laurie Perez.
With a chief of staff in place and a press secretary to handle the transition, Malloy said the process will be more formalized by Monday or Tuesday when his team gets an office at the Capitol and the Office of Policy and Management. He said he has some staff that he’ll bring on board and some others who have volunteered to help.
He said he’s looking forward to making some announcements shortly, but wasn’t willing to be more specific about which positions he may be filling first.
One of the most important positions a new administration will have to fill is Office of Policy and Management Secretary. The Secretary of OPM is the person in charge of the budget, which Malloy will have to submit by Feb. 5 to the state legislature.
“I’m looking at a number of different candidates for OPM,” Malloy said. “I’m not sure I’d call it a short list, but I’ve got a list.”
“There’s no smoke or mirrors to this. I’ve got a lot of hard decisions I’ve got to make and I’m in the process of making those,” Malloy said as he climbed into a Crown Victoria driven by a state trooper.
He said he’d like to get an OPM Secretary and two deputies appointed first, and believes a number of positions will fall into place after that.
Malloy was headed next to an interview with WFSB Channel 3 and following that he was headed back to Stamford to continue working on the transition, but before leaving Fox CT, he agreed to help Jim Altman’s daughter, Maddie, with a school project. Maddie interviewed Malloy for about five minutes as Malloy’s former opponent, Republican Tom Foley, was preparing to be interviewed for The Real Story.
Before leaving the studio Malloy weaved his way through the cameras to shake Foley’s hand. Foley greeted him by calling him “governor.”
