Former Connecticut House member Chris Shays was in the historic House chamber this afternoon for Gov. Dannel Malloy’s budget address. “I thought the governor gave a terrific speech,” said Shays, who is vying with Linda McMahon for the GOP’s U.S. Senate nomination. “I thought it was decisive. I thought it showed leadership. And the real question is how well can both sides work together? The big challenge that this state has – and I think the governor knows it but I’m not sure the majority in the Legislature knows it – that when you tax wealth and you tax jobs they leave. So that’s the one thing they’re going to have to sort out. Too many people are leaving the state because other states are more attractive economically. Candidly, I’ve been speaking to folks in terms of supporting my campaign and now their legal address is in Wyoming or Florida. And I know people who have shut down their businesses. And I know that certain states are targeting us like Florida and Wyoming where the governors are actually calling businesses here. You can micromanage and try to incentivize businesses here, but overall you’ve got to find a way to get the overall tax rate down on employers. But this was a decisive speech. It was clear that he’s isolated the problems that he wants to address and I think people should respect that.”