Local Legislators Respond to Governor’s Proposed Budget

Piscopo, Wilson say budget will hurt middle class, shift tax burden to municipalities

HARTFORD – State Reps. John Piscopo (R-76) and David Wilson (R-66) joined their legislative colleagues in a joint session of the House and Senate as Governor Malloy delivered his biennial budget address.  The governor outlined his proposed budget for FY 2018-2019.

The plan, which is littered with poor policy practices including passing fiscal responsibilities on to towns, the poor and middle classes, and retirees on fixed incomes, has fielded widespread criticism.

“The governor’s proposal punishes towns that work hard to come in with budgets that are as lean as possible and also punishes the middle class,” said Rep. Piscopo. “The process to develop a state budget begins with the governor’s proposal. Now the legislature has the opportunity to weigh in with its recommendations and I’m confident that we can develop an alternative proposal that addresses the spending problem in our state and makes fundamental, long-term structural changes that will create more stability and predictability for future budgeting cycles.”

“It is poor fiscal policy to suggest the state push off its responsibility of paying its debt obligations to towns and cities and ultimately, this policy would hurt the poor and the middle class taxpayers, as well as retirees and seniors who live on fixed incomes,” added Rep. Wilson. “We have an obligation to the taxpayers of our state to not only manage our debt, but also to set fiscal policies which will put our state back on solid financial ground. We also have an obligation to our municipalities to provide predictable budgets that they can count on year after year, in order to craft their own budget proposals which support the people of Connecticut in their hometowns.”

The Governor’s proposed budget passes more than $400 million of the cost of municipal schoolteachers’ pensions on to cities and towns to deal with. Aside from the high likelihood that it will cause local property taxes to be raised, the proposed budget increases the bottle deposit on carbonated beverages from $.05 to $.10, eliminates the property tax credit that is used by nearly 1 million homeowners, and closes the seven rest areas throughout the state.

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