Says plans to
cut the deficit will not deliver
Senator John A. Kissel (R- Enfield),
shortly before 2 a.m. this morning, cast his vote in
opposition to the newest deficit mitigation plan saying
that it was a good start but just did not go far enough.
“I applaud the bi-partisan effort to not raise
taxes this year, but for all its good intentions, I
cannot in good conscience stand behind a plan that promises
$1.2 billion in savings but avoids taking measures that
will actually deliver.”
The plan to balance the budget purports
to save $1.2 billion, but many of the cost saving measures
are vague at best. The $220 million line-item for sweeps
from off-budget accounts neglects to account for the
fact that millions have already been swept from those
accounts and many of the remaining accounts are untouchable.
The bill also lacks any implementation language for
a state employee retirement incentive program which
the majority party claims will save $22 million. Also
troubling is the $58 million in cuts that are assumed
and not accounted for, such as union concessions and
revenue from expansion of the bottle bill effective
April 1st.
“I wanted to vote for this bill, but as I examined
it closer, over 25% of the purported ‘cuts’
look good on paper but don’t detail the first
dollar of savings, let alone hundreds of millions,”
said Sen. Kissel. “We can’t
simply rely on a promise to find future savings. At
this rate we’ll squander over half of the savings
we have in our Rainy Day Fund by July. The people I
represent are honest, hard working people, and they
deserve more than what this plan offers. I’ve
heard time and time again that Connecticut is going
in the wrong direction and even when we are facing the
worst economic crisis in decades, the majority party
will not make the hard choices needed to get us back
on the right track.”
Late night amendments offered by Sen. Kissel and his
Republican colleagues included mandatory furlough days
for all state employees, legislator salary cuts and
implementation language for the retirement incentive
program, all of which were defeated along party lines
on the floor of the Senate.
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