Larson hails Obama 'for drawing a line in the sand'

Press release from U.S. Rep. John Larson, an East Hartford Democrat whose 1st District includes Bristol:
LARSON STATEMENT ON PRESIDENT’S SPEECH
WASHINGTON D.C. – Congressman John B. Larson (CT-01) released the following statement today on President Obama’s speech on reducing our long-term deficit:
“President Obama went straight to the American public today with a plan to grow the economy, create jobs and get the deficit under control without putting the burden on the backs of seniors who depend on Medicare or live in nursing homes, or on workers who’ve lost their health care, or on our veterans or students and their families. They’ve all sacrificed enough already. That’s the key difference between our vision for the nation and the Republican’s: shared sacrifice and fairness.
“I applaud the President for drawing a line in the sand – with respect to our seniors and Medicare and Social Security, and for the basic fairness that all Americans deserve.”



Copyright 2011. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

City budget running in the red

There will be more on this soon, but the city ended its most recent fiscal year with a budget shortfall of $1.46 million, according to the comptroller’s office, and is eyeing another deficit this year that could total more than $1 million.
That's real money, even for government.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Wright backs deficit reduction measure

Press release from state Rep. Chris Wright, a 77th District Democrat from northeastern Bristol:

REP. WRIGHT VOTES FOR DEFICIT

REDUCTION BILL

Deficit package maintains critical investments in economy

State Representative Christopher Wright (D-Bristol) joined a majority of legislators Wednesday night in voting for a second deficit mitigation package that cuts $131.6 million from the state’s budget deficit for the current fiscal year, while maintaining critical investments in Connecticut’s economy.

Even though this is the second of two packages to address this year’s deficit, Rep. Wright said that further reductions are more than likely to come as additional revenue figures become available in the weeks ahead.

“While we will continue to be challenged with balancing the budget and dealing with a growing deficit, we must also maintain critical investments in Connecticut’s economy,” Rep. Wright said. “As the global economy continues its impact on our state, revenue continues to decrease. We must tackle the deficit with a prudent, practical approach so that we can protect critical services that benefit our citizens, especially in these challenging economic times when they are needed most.”

The legislature adopted about 90% of the recommendations proposed by the governor with differences related to continuing investments in jobs, public health, energy efficiency, the environment and funding for municipalities.

The legislature’s budget committees will proceed with several hearings in the coming weeks to continue addressing the budget deficit. The governor is scheduled to deliver her budget proposal for 2009-2011 to the General Assembly on February 4.

The legislation, House bill 5095, passed in the House of Representatives 111 to 35 and in the Senate 24 to 12. It now goes to the Governor, who said she will sign the budget package into law. The previous mitigation package was approved in November and cut $71.8 million.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Hamzy calls for action on growing state deficit

Press release from state Rep. Bill Hamzy, a 78th District Republican:

State Representative William A. Hamzy and other Republican legislators today called for quick action by the Connecticut General Assembly to resolve a $300 million state deficit that continues to grow and could reach crisis proportions in the near future.
“It comes as no surprise to me that the state is now facing one of the worst deficits it has seen in many years,” said Representative Hamzy, R-78th District. “We did our homework during the recent 2008 legislative session and based on the information we put together at the time, concluded that unless we adjusted the second year of the 2007-2008 budget, the state was probably headed for a serious budget deficit before the year ended. Unfortunately for the people of Bristol, Plymouth, and the rest of the state, the majority Democrats chose to make no changes in the budget and went home.”
House and Senate Republicans offered an alternative budget in April that would have reduced spending by $163 million and helped avert the budget crisis that is now upon us, Representative Hamzy said.
The growing deficit was confirmed by independent budget analysts during a fiscal forum convened Thursday by state House and Senate Republicans. The forum also included both budget experts from the governor’s office and revenue analysts. Several Democrats also took part in the forum, which their leaders declined to attend.
Dwindling revenues and the refusal by the state legislature’s Democrat leaders to make budget adjustments earlier this year are leading to what could become the most serious fiscal problems the state has faced in almost a decade, Representative Hamzy said.
The state legislature’s non-partisan Office of Fiscal Analysis has noted the deficit could grow to as much as $1.2 billion in 2010.
“With Democrat legislative leaders continuing to reject our call for quick, decisive action to eliminate the deficit, it is clear to me that they intend to continue doing nothing until after the November elections - when they will push through major tax increases rather than make prudent reductions in state spending and implement an early retirement incentive program for state employees that would save us more than $160 million in payroll costs,” Representative Hamzy said. “With the state already in an economic downturn and unemployment on the rise, imposing another round of tax hikes on our overburdened taxpayers and on small businesses would result in a full-blown recession that could take years to end.”
“If we move quickly to schedule a special legislative session to pass the measures we proposed in April, we can begin lowering the projected deficit before it gets out of hand and becomes a major fiscal crisis,” Representative Hamzy said. “Connecticut taxpayers need answers now. They want us to act responsibly and be accountable for the actions we take to lower the deficit.”
The data presented at the forum clearly demonstrates that from real estate sales to income and sales taxes, revenues from virtually every sector of the state’s economy have dropped significantly, said House Republican Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-142nd District. He noted the budget numbers do not reflect any portion of the recent Wall Street meltdown that began September 15th and is expected to ripple through Connecticut’s economy as well

The forum revealed that revenues are seriously lagging:
Investment income is off 41 percent.
Real estate conveyance taxes are down more than 40 percent.
Gambling revenue is down 4.3 percent.
Car sales taxes are off 10.8 percent.

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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com