Critics of the tax-laden budget deal brokered between Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and members of his party’s legislative majority are getting well acquainted with their redial buttons.
A phone drive organized by members of the Republican minority appears to have besieged the switchboard of House Democrats, who are scheduled to deliberate on the controversial fiscal package later Tuesday, the penultimate day of the legislative session.
Attempts to get through on the main line of House Democrats were met with busy signals Tuesday morning. The volume of calls is so high that one GOP staffer told Hearst Connecticut Media that Democrats were transferring calls back to their Republican counterparts.
“We haven’t been transferring calls anywhere,” said Gabe Rosenberg, a spokesman for the House Democrats.
Through Facebook and Twitter, many Republicans urged their constituents to call lawmakers to voice their complaints over a package of tax increases, including plans to triple the state tax on data processing services from 1 to 3 percent and to reduce the property tax credits available to middle class residents.
Democrats in both chambers reported a spike in calls, but downplayed the onslaught.
“At the end of session, there’s a normal uptick in call volume,” said Adam Joseph, a spokesman for the Senate Democrats. “We get calls on a variety of issues from the temporary restraining order (legislation) to environmental bills.”
The only time switchboard operators would transfer a call to the Republicans, Joseph said, is if the caller asks to speak to the senator for their district.
The phone line of the Senate Democrats was open Tuesday.
Joseph said the 11th-hour lobbying is so intense that he got a cold call Sunday night telling him to contact his state senator, President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, who happens to be his boss, about a push for a federal constitutional convention over political speech.
“I said, ‘Yeah, I’ve got his number,’ ” Joseph said.