No Joke. Aresimowicz Missed Budget Negotiation for Golf Game.

Speaker of the House Joseph Aresimowicz (D-Berlin) skipped Tuesday’s budget negotiation meeting in Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s office to play golf. The high school football coach declined to begin addressing the state’s $5 billion deficit in order to participate in the Italian-American legislators golf tournament and dinner at the Tunxis Country Club in Farmington. Serious observers of state government’s mounting problems were shaking their head at the cavalier leader of the House Democrats nixing budget talks for a day on the links.

Tournament players waited until after Tuesday to grumble that Aresimowicz won the competition by bringing a ringer with him. He’ll have a harder time putting together a state budget–but first he needs to show up.