Senator Markley Blasts Democrat Budget, CBIA

Hartford-State Senator Joe Markley (R-Southington) today criticized the Democrat budget, which was partially released Tuesday. The budget includes large cuts in town aid and massive cuts to hospitals, including a $6.2 million cut to Waterbury Hospital and a $6.5 million cut to St. Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury.

“This budget is a combination of political cowardice and bad public policy,” said Senator Markley. “It reduces funding to vital social services and town aid rather than the bloated state bureaucracy itself. What is more, the majority party does not even have the courage to release the full details of their budget to the press and public before the legislature is supposed to vote on it tomorrow. I guess they suppose we need ‘to pass it so we can find out what’s in it.’”

The Republican alternative budget, A Pathway to Sustainability, fully funds hospitals, restores education funding to towns, and makes real structural changes such as mandate relief, overtime reform, and a reduction in the state bureaucracy.

“The Democrats seem to have a special animus towards hospitals, attacking them from both ends by repeatedly championing meddlesome regulations and reducing funding,” continued Senator Markley. “Furthermore, reductions in town aid simply shift funding responsibilities from the state to municipalities.”

The Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA) gave its endorsement of the partially released budget Tuesday.

“Once again, CBIA shows its timidity by capitulating to the status quo, endorsing a budget that has not been completed, lacks sufficient structural changes, and balances on the backs of the needy,” said Senator Markley. “Let’s not forget that CBIA also pushed the state income tax—the policy which put our great state on the road to fiscal perdition.”