Good Budget Rejected

A balanced, no-tax-increase budget offered by House Republicans on the final day of the 2009 legislative session was rejected by the Democrats by the use of an arcane parliamentary procedure. 

The House Republican budget would restore some proposed cuts, and preserve all aid to cities and towns–without raising taxes.

Our towns and cities throughout Connecticut continue in fiscal limbo waiting for the state to craft a budget that will allow them to know how much state aid they could expect over the next two fiscal years.  The Governor and the Republicans asked the Democratic majority to pass a resolution in early May saying all municipalities would at least be flat funded so they could adopt their own budgets. This proposal was rejected.

The legislature has not passed a budget for two years. Republicans presented their first budget for the next biennium on April 16. The supermajority party used a parliamentary procedure that disallowed debate on the budget proposal. Ironically, after several weeks of saying the Governor had done nothing to propose a budget that reflected the latest deficit forecasts, last week the Democratic supermajority voted down their own budget proposal which raised taxes by $3.3 billion.

Under the Republican proposed budget, no parks would be closed and towns would not be forced to pay a higher percentage for their resident state troopers. No additional court houses would be shut and modified grants for tourism and culture would remain.

Features in the Republican budget include:

• No tax increases
• $350 million of lottery earnings securitized, no Keno gambling
• Transition state employee healthcare from a fully insured model to a self-insured model
• Delay receipt of $151 million in Medicaid settlement funds, previously scheduled for receipt in the current fiscal year
• Using $28 million in federal stimulus to fund special education
• The modified biennial budget shows a $37 million surplus in each of the two years.

The longer the state goes without a budget, the budget deficit increases.  The state has done nothing to make systemic cuts in services, employees, or departments at a time when tax revenue is decreasing and if the state does not have a new budget by July 1, it will be forced to fund itself month by month, through temporary budget resolutions. Baring these resolutions, the state runs out of money.

We need leadership for Connecticut residents during this fiscal crisis. We need to do the people’s business today, which means adopting a fiscally sound budget.