Kelly, Formica: Calling a $1.9 billion new state expense ‘affordable’ is tone deaf to families’ struggles.

HARTFORD – Senate Republican Leader Kevin Kelly (R-Stratford) and Senate Republican Leader Pro Tempore Paul Formica (R-East Lyme) released the following statement in response to comments made during today’s public hearing on the $1.87 billion contract agreement between Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration and the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) advanced today by the Appropriations Committee and which includes raises as well as bonus payments of $3,500:

“Connecticut families are struggling. Our state is not affordable for far too many. Yet today, we heard the Governor’s budget chief call a $1.9 billion new taxpayer burden ‘affordable’ given the state’s surplus and inflation. CT Democrats calling a $1.9 billion new state expense ‘affordable’ is completely tone deaf to the reality working and middle-class families are facing. To every family in Connecticut, inflation is crushing them. To government, inflation is a boon. Government is flush with cash paid for by the very taxpayers who are struggling to make ends meet. Yet instead of talking about how we can return the overcollection of taxes to our struggling residents, CT Democrats see it as a license to spend and grow government. They are choosing more government over tax relief for all residents – state workers included. Connecticut families want to afford to live, work, raise a family, and retire here. But every time they turn around government is reaching its hand further into their wallets. Even today, when families are facing historic financial burdens and government is already flush with cash, the drain on Connecticut families never ends. Connecticut families deserve better. They deserve relief.”