December 14, 2009

Democrats refuse to let 'Gov. Scrooge' slash jobs

State Rep. Frank Nicastro, a Bristol Democrat, said tonight that when the legislature goes into session Tuesday, it's not going to go along with Gov. Jodi Rell's budget reduction ideas.
"We are not going to accept the governor's plan," Nicastro said.
He said that Rell's proposal would cost at least 4,000 people their jobs.
"Just what people need: 'Merry Christmas, you lost your job,'" the 79th District representative said.
He said the legislature will meet Tuesday as Rell insisted, but it won't do much.
"We're going to reject her plan" and then call for another session "right away to submit our plan," Nicastro said.
He said the Democratic plan will cut more than $100 million without layoffs.
Nicastro said the General Assembly will likely meet early next week, but it could be sooner. It will definitely approve something before Christmas, he said.
"It's not that we're going to proscratinate. We're going to come up with our plan," Nicastro said.
"We will not cut any more dollars from municipalities. That $84 million in cuts to municipalities will not happen," he said.
The municipalities "have been hurt enough" already, he said. Nicastro is a former mayor of Bristol.
The Democrats said that Rell is not pushing for hundreds of millions in federal stimulus cash. That's available, he said, if she goes after it aggressively.
"We lay off 5,000 more workers, that means 5,000 more on unemployment" who won't be spending or buying, Nicastro said.
"There's already been a large reduction in state workers," Nicastro said, and adding to the toll now makes no sense.
State workforce is already down 10 percent through early retirements and leaving vacant positions, he said.
Rell wanted to cut $87 million from hospitals. That would ax more than 2,000 jobs, he said, according to the Connecticut Hospital Association.
The governor's cuts would lead to more than $38 million in federal cuts because of reduced health care reimbursements, Nicastro said.
She wants to whack adult day care centers and other critically needed social service providers.
"What we're trying to do is create jobs," Nicastro said.
"She's failed to balance the budget in other ways," he said, so she has had to seek more cuts. Even the GOP opposes her plan, Nicastro said.
"We have an obligation to balance the budget," Nicastro said, but the state can't add to unemployment rolls and undermining Connecticut's hospitals.
"Laying off another 5,000 people isnt' the answer," Nicastro said. "We know we have a responsibility and we're going to do it. But we're going to do the right way."
"We're going to go after those federal funds big time," Nicastro said.
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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a Bozo Nicastro is. He has no plan whatsoever, simply hot air, a big snozzolla and hubris. He has no solution but enough hot air to keep all of Bristol warm for an entire winter. This is Artie's "buddy"? No wonder Bristol is on a slippery slide to oblivion.

Frankly said...

Frank is only Frank's buddy.

Anonymous said...

Cut!
Cut!
Cut!

peter said...

Connecticut unemployment is on the rise over the last month, but conditions vary throughout the state. Some areas are worse than others as visualized in this heat map:
http://www.localetrends.com/st/ct-connecticut-unemployment.php?MAP_TYPE=curr_ue

Anonymous said...

Nicastro- You are out of touch like many of your liberal do-nothing's. You said it makes no sense to cut more state jobs. These prima dona's in the state gov't, especially the union members, don't know what it is to have to work for a living. Rell should make her cuts and the Democrats additionally should cut the 100 million you are talking about. They should share the pain along with us in private industry. We are sick and tired of paying their wages and inflated bemnefits then we hear this crap from you. CUT!, CUT!, CUT! BIG GOV'T STATEWIDE AND FEDERAL WISE!!