Senator Cathy Cook, R-Mystic, today voted with the majority of her Senate Republican colleagues against an irresponsible biennial state budget that calls for spending too much money without addressing the priorities that are important to state residents, including her constituents in southeastern Connecticut.

"This budget calls for $1.2 billion in new spending starting in July, yet fails to review existing state programs according to efficiency and performance measures. We have never increased spending more than five percent a year since we enacted the income tax and spending cap - until this year, when we pass a budget calling for an 8.7 percent spending increase for the first year of the biennial budget. This leads us to unsustainable rate of growth in spending, and soon we will once again see double-digit spending increases," said Senator Cook, a long time member of the Appropriations Committee.

Senator Cook was equally shocked at the tax increases included in this budget.

"This budget actually calls for taxing people who have been dead for six months. It is disgraceful that the legislature is telling the state to go back to grieving families and tell them they owe taxes. The nursing home tax we are imposing creates winners and losers; a six percent tax on nursing home fees is a significant hit on those who are paying for their own care in a nursing home. I cannot support pitting one group of elderly people against another group of elderly people. Caring for our frail and sick elderly is everyone's responsibility and there are better, fairer, ways of meeting that responsibility than what is outlined in this budget," said Senator Cook.

Despite her 'no" vote, Senator Cook said that the budget included provisions that she has proposed for several years. For example, the budget includes her long-time proposal to permit recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance to keep their federally allocated cost of living increase without state penalty. It also includes a provision exempting 50% of individuals' military retirement pay from state income tax beginning in 2008, though she had proposed immediately exempting all military retirement pay from the state income tax.

"I voted no to this budget because I do not philosophically agree with the priorities of this budget. I believe that it is in our best interest, as a state, to live within our means and to allocate our resources to programs that benefit the state as a whole. This budget does not do that," said Senator Cook.