Bolinsky Votes Against “Broken Promises” State Budget

HARTFORD – In what can only be described as a slight of hand game being played on the taxpayers of Connecticut, Democrats in the House of Representatives changed recently adopted GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) rules to ram  through a state budget which circumvents the Constitutional spending cap, borrows for ongoing operating expenses, renews taxes that were set to expire at fiscal year-end, while ultimately adding additional taxes to cover a sharp increase in state spending, according to State Rep. Mitch Bolinsky.

The Democrats also side-stepped a constitutional requirement that a three-fifth’s majority vote of the House be required to break the spending by simply moving about $500 million below the budget’s bottom line.  This budget employs a controversial, first-time change in the way the state will now account for federal Medicaid reimbursement funds that effectively shuffles more than $1 billion from under the constitutional spending cap over the next two fiscal years.

Bolinsky, who believes this budget violates the State Constitution said, “We need to live within the limits of this Constitutional cap, as approved by more than that 80 percent of voters at the polls, back in 2001! This budget renders the cap meaningless and re-defines the will of the people.  In my 25-years of private sector business experience, I was taught to live by “the budget is your promise” credo.   I always delivered results on or under expenditure budgets.  This budget does not do that and, as a result, I cannot conscientiously support it.  I continue to believe that government needs a reality check!  To me, it’s pretty simple: Don’t spend more than you take in!”

Bolinsky continued, “Sitting on the Appropriations committee, I was continually perplexed by those who would try to represent a reduction in an agency’s line-item as a cut in state spending when  in fact it was nothing more than a smaller increase than expected.  I’m also incredibly disappointed that, despite public hearings, taxpayer input and call-outs from advocates and legislators like myself, deep cuts to funding for hospitals, not-for-profits and other critical public health programs were not addressed.  In a post-12/14 world, how do we justify these kinds of cuts to essential support services within a net-increased budget?”

The budget would also:

• Renew an expiring corporation tax surcharge and a cap on insurance premium tax credits for businesses;
• Implement the “Gross Receipts Tax, a major increase in the wholesale tax on gasoline and other fuels on July 1;
• Include preservation of an expiring electrical generation tax on power plants that is passed on to us, the ratepayers.
• Reduce scheduled economic recovery note payments from $208 million to $12 million. The balance is added to state debt and pushed out until after the 2014 elections;
• Increase real spendingby almost 10 percent over two years;
• Add a $550 million tax on hospitals by taking away that amount in previous funding;
• Use Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) only as a tool as an excuse to borrow $750 million for operating expenses

“This budget is loaded with gimmicks and two more years of fiscal instability. This budget does nothing to put Connecticut back on firm financial footing. If anything this only kicks the can down the road, leaving the heavy lifting for another day,” Rep Bolinsky concluded.