In May 2010, the Connecticut General Assembly passed into law what may well have been the worst budget in state history. Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell, nearing the end of her time in office, was in no mood to fight. Senate President Donald E. Williams Jr. of Brooklyn and House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan of Meriden were corralling Democrats to vote yes and get out of Dodge.

Despite a $726 million deficit, the budget contained no significant cuts. It did not raise taxes. Instead it deferred payments on the badly underfunded pension system, borrowed $1 billion to meet ongoing expenses, and imagined the arrival of $366 million in additional federal stimulus money. It set the stage for the fiscal crisis that continues to confront Connecticut.

Rep. Ed Jutila, D-East Lyme, then completing his third term, was among a group of centrist Democrats who refused to go along.

“You get a lot pressure. The governor’s people are lobbying you, your leaders are lobbying you, but that was not a good budget,” Jutila recalled.

A tougher vote would follow a year later, with a Democratic governor, Dannel P. Malloy, now in control. While Malloy had dealt with the deficit more honestly, in Jutila’s estimate — and that of The Day newspaper at the time — his fix depended too much on tax increases, not enough on budget cuts.

“The group of moderates that I was a part of … created a list of additional cuts that we proposed. We sent it to the governor and we sent it to our leaders. They ignored us, so most of us voted against that one, too,” he said.

I suspect Malloy now regrets not listening to those moderates.

Jutila, 61, sat down with me last week to talk about his 12 years in the House of Representatives. He is not seeking re-election. An attorney with United Technologies Corp., he said juggling the demands of his job and his legislative duties, which include chairing the busy Government Administration and Elections Committee, have become too much.

“It will be great to have some weekends off … to find time for family,” he said. “And it’s the way it should be, I think. Serve for a time — 12 years — then give someone else a chance. I think it’s good to have turnover in a legislative body.”

Jutila is the kind of pragmatic centrist that is fading from the political scene. Unlike Washington, for most of his time in office, he said, Republicans and Democrats in Hartford have been able to work together on the vast majority of policy issues. But he has sensed a shift.

“It has become a bit more partisan up there, particularly between the leaders, over the past two or three years, “Jutila observed.

Long a member of the Transportation Committee, he numbers among his successes fighting for expansion of Shoreline East rail service to New London. And while widening and improving Interstate 95 in the area — another of his main concerns — has not happened, it is one of the priority items in the governor’s transportation plans.

Jutila has been a champion for preserving open space and working to block development in the Oswegatchie Hills section of his town. He helped win federal recognition of the Eightmile River as a Wild & Scenic watershed.

As a journalist, I admire Jutila for leading the effort to pass a law that assures the public has access to arrest records and incident reports, avoiding the secrecy that can build distrust between police and the communities they serve. As chairman of the GAE Committee, he brokered a compromise between the chief state’s attorney and freedom of information advocates.

In acknowledgement of his efforts, the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information presented him with its Champion of Open Government Award last year.

“I am particularly proud of that one,” he said.

Sometimes it was the smallest things that brought great satisfaction, he said — making sure a Boy Scout Troop had access to a weigh station for their Labor Day free coffee service program, pushing increased penalties for underage tobacco sales (as suggested by a civics class), and blocking insurance companies from forcing local residents to install costly hurricane shutters.

Jutila always struck me as a guy who got into politics with the best of intentions; to make his state and his community better. He was never highly partisan and more focused on presenting his arguments than tearing down those who had a different view.

As he said, turnover is a good thing. Nonetheless, the state and East Lyme will miss Ed Jutila.

Paul Choiniere is the editorial page editor.