Formica: a budget should put people first.

Hartford, CT – State Senator Paul Formica (R-East Lyme) released the following statement today re: majority party Finance Revenue and Bonding Committee state budget $2 Billion tax proposal.

“I’m confident that the legislative body will work together in a bipartisan manner to finalize a budget that puts people first. Republican legislators agree with Democrat leaders that the governor’s budget proposal was a non-starter. It shredded the safety net.

“The republicans put together a blueprint for prosperity that restored those critical cuts including:

• Alleviating the developmental services waiting list for services aimed at helping intellectually disabled.
• Restored $18.7 million in mental health and substance abuse funding, including Regional Action Councils.
• Restored Medicaid Husky A to approximately 12,100 people, including all pregnant women currently covered and those at lower end of the income spectrum.
• Funds a $67 billion transportation improvement initiative over the next 30 years and protects the Special Transportation Fund.
• Restores the honor guard for military funerals and funding to public libraries.

“In order to pay for the restoring of those important items we propose no new taxes. Instead, the Blueprint for Prosperity prioritizes and asks that promises made be kept. There is still $253 million in outstanding labor savings that has yet to be fulfilled from the labor agreement that Governor Malloy made several years ago when he instituted the largest tax increase in state history.

“You can’t go back to the people of Connecticut and ask for more sacrifice by imposing another retro-active across the board tax hike. There is a better way to balance the state budget if we all work together.”

To learn more about the Blueprint for Prosperity visit www.ctsenrepublic.wpengine.com