The Business Council of Fairfield County has scheduled its annual breakfast forum featuring Democratic and Republican leaders of the General Assembly for next Wednesday, 7:45 a.m. at the Stamford Plaza Hotel and Conference Center.
All of the details are below. And below the details I’ve posted a report on last year’s event to give folks who have not participated a flavor of how these forums typically work.
Wednesday’s forum should be particularly interesting in light of the gubernatorial race and the state’s continued economic/budget woes. Business leaders expressed frustration with their representatives during a similar breakfast in Danielson on Wednesday.
If you read my story from last year, you’ll find House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero (R-Norwalk) expressing skepticism about Democrats’ promises to streamline government. He was right. The majority party made little to no progress last year in actually downsizing the size of Connecticut’s bureaucracy. We’ll see what new promises they make Wednesday.
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The Business Council of Fairfield County will host Connecticut’s Legislative Leadership on Wednesday, March 24th at the Stamford Plaza Hotel & Conference Center from 7:45 a.m. until 9:30 a.m.
The breakfast will feature Senate President Pro Tempore Don Williams (D – Brooklyn), House Speaker Christopher Donovan (D-Meriden), House Minority Leader Larry Cafero (R-Norwalk) and Senate Minority Leader Pro Tempore John McKinney (F-Fairfield) who will share their priorities and their predictions for the current legislative session.
We are a month into the Connecticut 2010 Legislative session and estimates of the deficit for this year and the subsequent fiscal year keep rising. Rising to the tune of over $4 billion for FY 2011-12.
Last week, Gov. Rell released her deficit mitigation plan prompting a Hartford Courant editorial that declared she’s already in retirement. This week, a group of 15 moderate Democrats sent a letter to House Speaker Donovan and Senate President Pro Tem William requesting serious action on the state’s ballooning debt without the use of debt to bond operating costs.
And while California’s debt crisis has monopolized the headlines, Connecticut’s debt per capita is well above that of California’s. With 2 months left of the legislative session what serious action, if any, will be taken?
Hear directly from the Democratic and Republican leadership how Connecticut will rise to the challenge and what that rise may cost us and the state.
Reservations for Business Council members are $45 per person, or $450 for a table of ten. YPN members are $35. The non-member rate is $55 per person. Reservations and further information may be obtained by contacting The Business Council at 203-359-3220.
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3/31/09
Williams: Higher taxes ‘on the table”
Democrats’ budget plan to be $1B leaner
By Brian Lockhart
Staff Writer
STAMFORD — State Democrats will propose more than $2 billion in spending cuts for the coming two fiscal years, and increases in income and sales taxes are likely when they unveil their budget Thursday.
State Senate President Donald Williams, D-Brooklyn, told members of the Business Council of Fairfield County at a legislative breakfast Monday that the budget plan will include about $1 billion in spending cuts in 2009-10 and the same in 2010-11.
“There will absolutely have to be very deep cuts in spending,” Williams said. “It’s not going to be pretty. No one is going to have a parade for the legislature at the end of this session.”
Williams did not provide details about the cuts and avoided discussing changes in tax policy. He hinted strongly that “significant revenue adjustments” are part of the plan.
“Are we raising taxes on the wealthy? What are defined as ‘the wealthy?’ Are we changing business taxation?” said Joe McGee, vice president of public policy for the business council.
Williams provided no insight but spoke of the Democrats’ efforts to apportion the “shared sacrifice” needed to address the deficit “in as fair a way as possible.” The Office of Fiscal Analysis estimates the state budget deficit at $8.7 billion for fiscal 2009-10 and 2010-11.
The legislature has to “do better” than when it cut smaller deficits in the early 1990s and 2002 using a ratio of 50 percent tax increases, 30 percent spending cuts and 20 percent borrowing, Williams said.
“That gives you some idea how Connecticut approached this in previous years,” Williams said.
He would like to avoid borrowing now, he said.
He compared Connecticut’s deficit problem to that of California, which boosted income and sales taxes.
“We are right up there, almost identical in terms of the scope of our problem,” Williams said.
In New York, lawmakers Monday announced a budget deal to raise income taxes for three years on households earning more than $300,000.
A progressive income tax for Connecticut is “on the table, absolutely,” along with “some changes to the sales tax,” Williams said.
He would not say what income levels would be taxed higher.
“That’s to be determined between now and Thursday,” he said.
In 2007, state Democrats tried to pass an income tax on households earning more than $250,000. Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed the bill when lawmakers from Stamford and Norwalk fought the tax hike.
Williams would not discuss how the Democrats’ plan might affect businesses and tax credits.
“It’s fluid right now,” Williams said. “We’re running different scenarios.”
The minority leaders, state Sen. John McKinney, R-Fairfield, and state Rep. Lawrence Cafero, R-Norwalk, said government should be cut as much as possible before tax hikes are considered.
“We’re going to need both layoffs and concessions if we’re going to emerge from this economic crisis,” McKinney said. “It’s the only way.”
The state should stop delivering social services and turn that over to private nonprofit providers who do it well for less pay and benefits, he said, estimating that would save $300 million to $400 million.
Cafero touted Rell’s budget proposals, such as merging the departments of education and higher education and eliminating several commissions. But tax increases are likely in the future, he said.
“We have to do all we can now to avoid the tax increases, knowing they’re going to come down the road,” Cafero said.
He is skeptical about the Democrats’ claim that they want to streamline government, given they never found $220 million in savings they pledged to find to get the state out of the red in fiscal 2008-09, Cafero said.
“Here it is, the 30th of March. We’ve yet to find that money,” Cafero said.
The Appropriations Committee has until April 6 to do that.
“That $220 million we’re confident we’ll find,” Williams said.
