HARTFORD – House and Senate Republican Leaders, State Rep. Lawrence F. Cafero Jr. and Sen. John McKinney, today said state laws cited by insurance giant AIG to justify $165 million in “outrageous’’ employee bonuses must be re-written and they pledged to take action as early as next week when the legislature convenes.

AIG in recent days has cited provisions of the Connecticut Wage Act to go ahead with the bonuses.  The company says that if it does not go forward it could cost double the $165 million and taxpayers would be left with the bill. Cafero said he wants to take away that argument from AIG which has received $170 billion in federal bailout money.

“AIG has used this provision in Connecticut statutes as an excuse to give those largely responsible for the company’s financial implosion $165 million in bonuses. The public is outraged and they do not understand how this is possible, given that it is taxpayer dollars that have been used to keep AIG alive,’’ Cafero said.

AIG expects to receive billions more aid this year.  

McKinney of Fairfield said, “We are outraged to learn that AIG is using Connecticut Wage Laws as leverage to use taxpayer money to pay hundreds-of-millions of dollars in bonuses.  The legislature should move immediately to change Connecticut law. We in Connecticut can do what Congress failed to do, which is protect taxpayers from having their hard earned money used for these exorbitant bonuses.’’

They said they will try to amend the laws to focus on companies that receive federal bailout assistance and exempt bonuses and retention bonuses from coming under the Connecticut Wage Act. “We want to take away their justification for using Connecticut law to spend hundreds of millions to those responsible for this financial disaster,’’ Cafero said.

The Republicans said they hope to attract bipartisan support from Democrats when they introduce the legislation next week.

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