New Budget... Same Problems

The consensus revenue estimates confirm what legislative Republicans have been saying for weeks: The Democrat budget was in deficit upon passage.

When Comptoller Wyman reported a potential $500 million - $1 billion deficit on October 1st, Democrats ignored her warnings. Now that the most recent OPM estimate predicted a $388.5 million budget deficit for FY 2010, Democrats can’t ignore reality any longer. The people of Connecticut need their elected officials to finally lead by making the difficult decisions necessary to reduce the size and cost of state government.

Senate Republicans stand ready to work on a mitigation plan that brings the state budget back into balance by reducing the cost and size of state government. Less than one month after passing a budget that we all knew was unsustainable, Governor Rell will once again have to make the difficult decisions the Democrats have repeatedly failed to make.

In the past year we met four times to vote on deficit mitigation plans. The Democrats failure to act with any sense of urgency or responsibility during those negotiations and their creation of an unaffordable budget have put us where we are today. We can only hope they will finally start getting serious. The people of the state of Connecticut deserve better.