Rep. Case: Malloy’s rhetoric sounds familiar, but his budget plan isn’t

HARTFORD – When voters elected State Rep. Jay Case to the Connecticut General Assembly in November, they chose him to represent the 63rd District on his pledge of “living within our means” on state spending. When Gov. Dannel P. Malloy unveiled his $41 billion biennium budget Wednesday, which includes a 9 percent spending increase, the Democratic governor said it was “living within our means.”

While Gov. Malloy might be touting his package through Republican language, using phrases familiar to Rep. Case and fellow lawmakers, the budget proposal is anything but “living within our means,” Rep. Case said Wednesday.

“How are we going to pay for this?” Rep. Case, who represents Winchester, Colebrook, Goshen and Torrington, said in response to Gov. Malloy’s budget proposal. “This is just more of the same: We’re putting everything on the credit card and kicking the can down the road. All of this borrowing will come on the backs of towns, much like the ones in my district, on hospitals and on future generations.”

Gov. Malloy’s proposal includes $750 million in borrowing for day-to-day expenses, deferring payments for the next three years; a $1.7 billion in additional spending, even in the face of a $2.5 billion deficit; an elimination of the vehicle tax, which will require already frustrated, hurting towns to find revenue elsewhere – like increasing mill rates and property taxes; and a scheme to add $73 million for local education taking state money for municipal general funds and giving it directly to boards of education, leaving a hole in town budgets.

“I’m appalled at the amount of spending the governor has proposed. This is not, by any measure, a way of ‘living within our means,’ like the governor described,” Rep. Case said. “The budget process is a long process, though, so hopefully we can work in a bipartisan manner to get a better plan in place.”