Fasano, Klarides Statement on Governor’s Revised Budget Proposal

Hartford – Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano (R-North Haven) & House Republican Leader Themis Klarides (R-Derby) released the following statement regarding Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s revised fiscal year 2017 budget proposal released today.

“We thank the governor for recognizing the full scope of the state’s sizable deficit, however the path to attain long-term fiscal stability is not through layoffs and budget cuts alone. They address the effect, but they do not alleviate the cause. We need to focus on rethinking policies to ensure our state lives within its means moving forward. We need to budget for generations, not elections.

“Republicans recently proposed over a dozen long-term initiatives to move our state forward. At the very least, we are calling on legislative leaders to make changes including but not limited to the following three: (1) mandatory approval of labor contracts by the General Assembly, (2) capping bonding, and (3) creating an Office of Overtime Accountability.

“When the clock was running out on the current fiscal year, lawmakers worked together to successfully resolve the 2016 deficit. We acted quickly, knowing that 2017 would provide us with an opportunity to make more lasting changes and help put an end to the perpetual cycle of budget deficit after budget deficit. Now is the time to act and implement structural changes. Any 2017 budget that lacks these long-term policy changes only sets us up for more failure in the future. If Democrats want to make this a bipartisan process, their legislative leaders need to commit to closing the deficit of over $900 million in full and making significant structural long-term policy changes.”