Sen. Sampson Slams Bloated Spending, Process of $51 Billion Biennium State Budget

State Sen. Rob Sampson (R-Wolcott) today reacted to the Senate’s passage of the $51.1 billion biennium state budget, which he said is flawed in priorities and crafted in bad form.

The 900-page budget, released late Monday, reflects an overall 8.9 percent hike in governmental spending from the past two years, and spends the most of the four individual budget proposals offered this year—including a Senate Republican proposal. At the same time, it delivers modest taxpayer relief of $630 million. The Senate Republican plan offered a record $1.53 billion in taxpayer relief.

“After diligently working to produce a budget alternative with my Senate Republican colleagues, I hoped that the Majority would join us to deliver real tax releif. This was not the case. My biggest issue is with the spending outlined in this document. It grows government at a time when we should be reducing its footprint in our state and on our lives,” said Sen. Sampson.

“We continue to pay more for everything because of inflation. What happens next? We’re paying more taxes as a result and Connecticut is raking it in. Our government should be looking to give back these record revenues, yet this budget doesn’t prioritize returns to taxpayers. The bottom-line figure is all that’s needed to validate this statement. My critics will say that, yes, there are income tax savings built in. While I would vote for any tax savings, they are not enough when I see how our government found more ways to spend record revenue at our expense,” he said.

Sen. Sampson also took exception with the form and content of the legislation, which includes unrelated controversial policy items that did not gain approval during the six-month legislative session. Such controversial policies include:

• Expanded health care for illegal immigrants
• Expansion of the controversial “Clean Slate” provisions for offenders
• Debt-free college funding
• Student loan reimbursement for certain extremely high-income earners
• Services for prison inmates with “gender incongruence”
• Continuation of the 10 percent surcharge on the Corporate Tax

He said, “There’s a right and a wrong way to craft a state budget. We were asked to digest a nearly 1,000-page document in only 24 hours before casting a vote on behalf of our constituents. The truth is that none of us had adequate time to read this budget in the necessary detail. We see dozens of big, wonderful ideas in this budget and every one of them is funded by taxpayers. The state budget should not be a garbage can where the Majority throws in their pet projects that failed to advance through both chambers.

“My opposition is rooted in the following questions: Will the people of Connecticut benefit from this budget? Will businesses? Millennials? Seniors? Will more jobs be created, or more opportunity be provided? Regrettably, I do not see these stabilizing effects for the state through the budget before us today.”