Earlier this afternoon Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell issued a revised budget proposal to reflect the fact her budget staff are now estimating the two-year deficit at $7.95 billion as opposed to the $6 billion figure she used in February.
What hasn’t changed is Rell’s insistance the budget be balanced without the tax increases proposed by legislative Democrats, including the higher income tax rates that would target wealthier households of $250,000 or more in Fairfield County.
Rell said she does not relish proposing the new cuts – which include, locally, proposed closures of J.M. Wright Technical School in Stamford and the Norwalk courthouse.
“Are they better choices than tax increases? The answer is ‘yes’,” Rell told reporters.
State unions have been urging lawmakers to raise taxes on the wealthy and on corporations. I noted that many of the cuts appear to impact programs that assist middle or lower-income residents but Rell responded “we are all sharing in this.”
A bit later during their own press conference House Democrats, including Speaker Christopher Donovan, D-Meriden, Majority Leader Denise Merrill, D-Storrs, and the chairmen of the legislature’s Finance and Appropriations Committees said the popular Governor’s true values are on display and she is leaving the state’s well-to-do “unscathed.”
“Her proposals tend to hurt those who are hurt most in the recession,” Donovan said.
Rep. John Geragosian, D-New Britain, an Appropriations Committee chairman, noted Rell is still pushing across-the-board fee hikes that will hurt some as much if not more than tax increases.
“She can’t get off saying she has a ‘no tax’ budget,” Geragosian said.
During a discussion following Rell’s press conference, House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero, R-Norwalk, took issue with my question about the Governor’s budget impacting those residents with less means.
He argued that many citizens who pay taxes do not share in the very services they are helping to fund.
“The majority of our citizens don’t rely on the state for anything,” Cafero said. “The people who are not represented in the budget are suffering more than anybody in the state.”
