Posted on February 21, 2017

The Day’s editorial page allowed Republican lawmakers 11 days to come up with a $40 billion budget response to the tax and spending plan laid out by Gov. Malloy Feb. 8.

How generous.

It took the governor’s bureaucratic budget experts presumably all fall and into the winter to create a universally disliked proposal – most Democrats not living in Hartford, New Haven and Bridgeport don’t support it either – that shovels much the state’s looming $3.6 billion deficit onto to towns and cities and builds in concessions from state employees.

Posted on February 8, 2017

HARTFORD – Calling Gov. Malloy’s budget proposal “universally unpopular,’’ House Republican Leader Themis Klarides today said the plan would hit Connecticut’s middle class the hardest by shifting the tax burden to towns and cities, and workers who can least afford huge tax increases.

The budget assumes $1.4 billion in union concessions, similar to Malloy’s failed 2011 budget policy that didn’t achieve the projected savings. That led to repeated deficits, including the projected $1.7 billion hole for the next fiscal year, and $1.9 billion the year after. The proposal represents a $200 million tax hike and also shifts $400 million in teacher pension payments to municipalities.

Posted on February 7, 2017

HARTFORD — House and Senate Republicans today unveiled a plan to reinstate nearly $20 million in education funding that was cut midyear to cities and towns throughout the state. The proposal would also eliminate the projected fiscal year 2017 budget deficit.

The proposal would allow the state to restore $18.9 million in Education Cost Sharing funding that was cut by the administration in December and also close the current budget deficit of $11.9 million as estimated by the Office of Fiscal Analysis.…

Posted on February 1, 2017

HARTFORD – House Republican Leader Themis Klarides and Senate Republican President Pro Tempore Len Fasano  today urged fellow lawmakers to reject Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s pension funding agreement and work together to assess alternative methods to address the state’s growing pension system problems.

The Republican legislators also released data obtained from two actuarial analyses that show how additional steps can rein in the state’s unfunded pension liabilities. Both reports show how pairing…