The Blogster and another reporter staked out Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s office this afternoon, waiting for Speaker of the House Chris Donovan, D-Meriden, and Senate President Pro Tempore Don Williams, D-Brooklyn, to emerge, after an hour-long meeting on the budget.
Out they came with their majority leaders and the co-chairmen and woman of the budget-setting Appropriations Committee and the tax-writing Finance Committee.
Williams:
“We talked about moving it forward, working together to make sure that in the Appropriations and Finance process that folks have all the information they need so that we can move this as quickly as possible.”
Donovan:
“It’s just been two weeks since this has been out. Approps deadline is the end of April. We’ve committed ourselves that in the next two months, we’ll do intense working on the hotspots in the budget, try to resolve them as best we can and hopefully have a budget, certainly in Approps and Finance that’s close to being the real deal.”
Williamas:
“What’s so different is that we’re working together. In the past we’ve had governors who proposed budgets with gaping holes that weren’t real in terms of being balanced. So we have something entirely different. We have a new framework with an honest budget and being able to work cooperatively with the governor toward a resolution hopefully sooner rather than later.”
(question on the start of union negotiations)
Donovan:
“We talked about that and he said they started negotiations today, so no details and that’s the way it should be.
In some ways this was the post-budget discussion. With the budget coming out and people having hearings and reacting, now it’s like Ok, let’s set up a framework with Approps and Finance working, going through the budget with a fine-tooth comb, as we come up with issues we need to address, we have a mechanism to try to resolve them as much as possible. We really didn’t get to what the individual things are. We just said there’s a process and let’s figure out a way we can resolve it.”
Williams:
“I would add to that. I would say that the framework he has presented is a very responsible and courageous framework. We would like to move that forward as quickly as possible. Everyone knows there will be some changes, some improvements, some tweaking to the budget. But what we have now is something we’ve never had in recent history, which is a budget from the governor that does present a responsible framework that does deal with the truth depth of the deficit.”