Opposite Sides Respond To Malloy’s Budget Proposal

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle had much to say about Malloy’s budget after his speech Wednesday. Here are the reactions from Senate President Don Williams and House Minority Leader Larry Cafero.

On The Overall Proposal:

“I think one of the great things about the governor’s proposal here is that he’s not cutting back on education and he’s not cutting back on economic development. If we’re going to grow jobs, if we’re going to have a more prosperous state in the future, we’re going to continue to be a catalyst to make things happen in our society and to create more jobs in the future.” - Sen. Don. Williams (D)

“One of the things I guess I was most surprised at is that path he talked about he took us down two years ago, two years later has left a lot of people with less money, less jobs, less opportunity in the state of Connecticut. It was our hope he would recognize that and make a sea change in the way we do business in Connecticut. But by his own admission he’s continuing down the same path that he took us two years ago and I think that’s going to a path that we don’t want to go down…It’s a massive amount of borrowing and our kids and grand-kids are going to have to pay that bill . And when you look at every category that we’ve been in as a state, rated 50^th because of the way we handle our finances, and basically what the governor said is we’re going to continue to handle our finances in the way we always have for the last two years that is devastating….You know, what you say and what you do, in order for people to believe it’s an honest and transparent budget, need to match up. He has said one thing, his actual budget document does another. That’s not transparency.” – Rep. Larry Cafero (R)

On the Motor Vehicle Tax:

“As I said before, this is the first step. It remains to be seen on the car tax issue how that can be implemented in a way that’s not only good for municipalities but I think more importantly good for taxpayers, good for folks who are struggling out there who need cars to get to work. So I want to work with the governor to see if this is something that we can move forward.” – Sen. Don Williams (D)

“This governor as mayor of Stamford was highly critical of [the motor vehicle tax]. I can only imagine how  critical he would be if that gov had said I’m taking your the ability to tax all the vehicles away and I’m not taking anything back…I’d re-prioritize and say we’re going to lower motor vehicle taxes but we’re going to give another methodology for municipalities to keep them whole. He hasn’t done that…That’s another thing that’s confusing. The governor said he would keep it fair. That pre-supposes that every municipality would change the way they tax motor vehicles. He’s not changing that part of it he’s just exempting the first $20,000 dollars of the assessed value. So…it would still incent somebody to register their car if they had a more expensive car elsewhere.” – Rep. Larry Cafero (R)

On the lack of Newtown-related funding:

“I think it shows that the governor and the legislature are working together on a response to the Newtown tragedy, that his task force is in touch with our task force, and we will work with them on their recommendations as we move our legislation forward.” – Sen. Don Williams (D)

“That’s a concern. We’ve all made a priority in the post-Newtown world to look at mental health, to look at gun regulations, et cetera. To my knowledge there’s not a nickel of money set aside in this thinly balanced budget at least on paper that takes this into account and we’re just a few weeks away from coming up with proposals that by everyon’es admission will cost money. There’s no room in that budget to fund it. Does that mean we’re going to borrow even more beyond the 3 billion? If that’s the case we’re headed down the wrong path.” – Rep. Larry Cafero (R)

And in case the above quotes weren’t enough to indicate the budget battle in store for this session? Here is Cafero’s response after he was asked about finding common ground:

“I don’t know if there is common ground. It is what it is.”