Republican Legislators Pitch Alternative State Budget

Two state legislators from East Haven presented an austerity message about the state budget Tuesday night at a town hall-style meeting they held at the .

"These are tough times and we need to make tough decisions," said state Sen. Len Fasano, R-34, to about 40 residents who attended.

The town hall meeting was part of a series presented by Republicans in the Legislature to inform the public about the state budget and drum up support for their alternative plan.

It also gave residents a chance to ask questions and raise their own issues, including two state employees who defended state workers, saying they were not responsible for the budget problems.

After it was over, East Haven resident Michael Enders said he thought the program was informative and he liked with the legislators had to say.

"We got into this mess because when times are good they just operate under the assumption that times will always be good and they don’t set aside anything for a rainy day," Enders said about the Legislature in Hartford.

Fasano was joined by state Rep. Vincent Candelora, R-86, for most of the meeting. State Rep. James Albis, D-99, was also invited, but he was kept in Hartford by the Judiciary Committee’s debate on a bill to abolish the death penalty in Connecticut.

Albis sent a letter, read by Fasano, in which he praised Gov. Dannel Malloy’s budget plan, but added that he thought it could still be improved.

He also said he would work to save the Property Tax Credit, something his Republican colleagues said they agreed with.

Fasano and Candelora showed a slide presentation on Connecticut’s budget woes that was critical of Malloy’s two-year budget proposal because it continues to raise spending and increase taxes.

"We’re going to be spending more next year than this year," Fasano said. "There aren’t cuts in future spending; there are cuts in future increases."

The slide presentation said the governor’s proposal would hike taxes by $1,080 for a typical two-income family of four making $120,000, and a single mother with two children and an income of $40,000 would pay an extra $764.

"It’s shifting a lot of the tax burden to the middle class and to our lower income earners," said Candelora.

Mayor April Capone also attended and was one of the first to ask a question. She wondered what the Republicans wanted to cut if they didn’t support Malloy’s budget proposal.

Candelora noted the Republicans have an alternative budget plan. He said like Malloy they proposed to consolidate state agencies, but the Republican plan is more extensive and provides more savings.

Fasano said that he agrees with many of the things Malloy has proposed, even though some don’t go far enough.

One problem has been that state employee contracts go into effect automatically if they appear on the Legislature’s calendar for 30 days. Fasano said that is how the members of the Legislature avoid voting on the contracts and then tell the voters they are not responsibile for them.

But Malloy said he insists that the Legislature votes on employee contracts from now on, something Fasano agrees with.

"We need to change the system because the system is too heavy. We can’t afford the system we have," Fasano said.

Cosmo Ignoto, a Department of Transportation supervisor, said state employees are demoralized because they are frequently blamed for the budget problems. But in his opinion most of the problems are not their fault.

"Most of the states today have tolls," Ignoto said. "The people of Connecticut are paying for the upkeep of the roads from their taxes."

Fasano also noted that state residents pay one of the highest state gasoline taxes. The money is supposed to pay for road and bridge repairs, but instead the Legislature used it to plug the budget deficit.

Another state employee who works for the child support enforcement agency said the state wastes millions of dollars providing services and welfare for people who never pay any taxes in their lives.

When a resident asked what was being done to make the state more friendly for business, Fasano told how he tried to stop the CEO of Remington from closing Marlin Firearms and moving the company out of the state.

He arranged for the CEO to meet former Gov. M Jodi Rell and tell her why he didn’t want to keep the Marlin subsidiary in Connecticut.

Fasano said it didn’t stop Remington from moving, but the CEO told Rell he wouldn’t sell the property. Instead he would wait until the economy improves and then reconsider doing business in Connecticut.

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