The Bipartisan Budget Moves CT Forward

Since Republicans and Democrats in the General Assembly passed a budget last Friday, the Governor, Democrat leadership, and their progressive activists have tried to sow doubt and misinformation about the document.

In the video below, I set the record straight. For a brief synopsis, see the bullet points.

• UConn does receive painful cuts, but they have the capacity to absorb funding reductions that the poor, elderly, and disabled simply do not. We provide them the flexibility to make reductions the way they think would suit the school best.
• The budget does not contain a “teacher tax;” rather, it increases the contributions teachers’ pay towards their own retirement from 6% to 8% at maximum. This remains below the national average of over 10% for teacher contributions.
• The budget is, I would argue, better for teachers as it implements a fair education funding mechanism with no reductions. On the contrary, the draconian cuts the Governor plans for October will force many municipalities to either 1) drastically cut funding or 2) dramatically raise property taxes
• The budget does include a new tax on hospitals requested by the hospitals. This is a matter of leveraging more money from the federal government. Both the state and hospitals will see an increase.

I will keep you updated as we await further developments from Governor Malloy on the budget.