State Senate Republican Leader Louis C. DeLuca (R-Woodbury), Senator John McKinney (R-Fairfield),
Senator David J. Cappiello (R-Danbury), Senator William Nickerson (R-Greenwich) and fellow Senate Republicans held a press conference today to provide an update on the status of the budget negotiations and reiterate their commitment to passing a budget plan that remains under the state's spending cap. The Republican Senators were critical of the Democrats continued insistence on breaking the state constitutional spending cap, and expressed doubts as to whether the Democrats had enough support in their own caucuses to pass their partisan budget.
"By setting such an absurdly high level of spending and refusing to back down from it, the Democrats have managed to shift the debate from the usual disagreement over spending priorities into a full blown attack on the state constitution," said Senator DeLuca. "A 13% increase in spending is not simply ignoring the spending cap, it is willful violation of the decree handed down to us by the 81% of the people of Connecticut who voted for the cap in 1992. If the Democrats think it is important enough to violate the constitution in order to raise taxes by billions of dollars and increase spending beyond our ability to sustain it, then they should do so and get it out of their system. Then at least they can have their partisan plan vetoed, and we can work towards a budget compromise that brings these Democrat tax and spend fantasies back into the realm of reality."
"There is a fundamental difference between our philosophy and the majority party's," said Senator McKinney. "We remain steadfast in our belief that the integrity of the constitutional spending cap must be protected. Over 80% of Connecticut's taxpayers voted to impose a cap on runaway state spending. The majority party wants to defy the will of the people and ignore the spending cap. As long as they insist on breaking the spending cap, I'm afraid we will be at a budget impasse."
"There are only two weeks left in the legislative session and there is no indication that a budget vote is imminent. In my opinion there are a couple of reasons for this. Either the members of the Democratic leadership know their budget is unconstitutional or the votes to pass a such a budget within the rank and file are simply not there," said Sen. Cappiello. "If the votes are there they should bring it out, if not let's get back to work on a bipartisan budget that stays within the cap before time runs out."
"Taxes are not a guideline for taxpayers, they are a legal obligation that must be paid. Still less is the spending cap a guideline for the legislature - it is a constitutional obligation that must be obeyed," said Senator Nickerson. |
