72°
To the editor:
As expected, the state's continuing budget crisis is starting to play out in brutal detail. Indeed, the governor's latest budget proposal has people from all walks of life alarmed. His latest proposal, however, is not the final budget.
You will recall that the governor released his initial budget proposal back in February. The Appropriations and Finance Committees thereafter worked to adjust the proposal and address this year's $900 million deficit but came up $300 million short.
The governor thus pitched his latest draft on Tuesday, proposing layoffs and $43 million in cuts to our Education Cost Sharing funding mechanism – with towns like ours getting all of our ECS funding cut. In response, many towns are already making plans to lay off teachers.
Likewise, the additional municipal cuts being proposed will, if adopted, need to be "balanced out" by higher property taxes. Simply put, it’s a mess.
The current crisis derives from years of fiscal mismanagement by the majority Democrats, not from some “new economic reality.”
Of course, House and Senate Republicans will again propose balanced budget alternatives that, if adopted, will dig us out of this current financial crisis through fiscal discipline in the years ahead.
Talk is cheap, but funding schools, infrastructure and needed programs is not. With the right policies and the right leadership, we may yet recover from the current self-inflicted crisis.
As always, please feel free to contact me at John.Shaban@housegop.ct.gov or 1-800-842-1423 with questions and concerns relating to state government.
Rep. John Shaban
Follow Shaban's legislative activity by clicking her, or on his Facebook page by clicking here.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Trumbull-Monroe and receive free news updates.
