February 26, 2009
Senate Approves No-Tax Budget by 23 - 12 Early Thursday Morning
On strict party lines, the state Senate voted early Thursday morning for a deficit-cutting plan that would largely eliminate the deficit for the current fiscal year and would not raise any taxes or fees.
The Senate approved the measure by 23 to 12, unlike the unanimous 143 to 0 vote hours earlier in the House that included speeches about bipartisanship.
"I am pleased the Legislature has finally taken action,'' Gov. M. Jodi Rell said in a statement issued after 1:30 a.m. "Given the economic problems that continue to burden both our nation and our state, the deficit for this current fiscal year is likely to continue to grow - so every dollar saved is critical.''
Rell continued, "Nevertheless, in many ways the bill passed tonight falls short. The original intention of this session was to pass a retirement incentive plan to reduce the state payroll. The deficit mitigation bill claims the savings from that plan - yet no plan was passed tonight, and any such plan requires legislative action. In addition, my budget office believes that many of the 'fund sweeps,' intended to transfer $220 million into the General Fund, cannot happen because the money is either not there or is restricted to certain uses - and the majority Democrats know this very well.''
But some lawmakers predicted that they will be returning to the state Capitol, possibly in two months, for the fourth deficit-mitigation plan as the economy gets worse and the work is not completed.
As part of the bill that would reduce the deficit by an estimated $1.2 billion in the current fiscal year, lawmaker voted to expand the state's bottle bill to water - but it does not include sports drinks or juice bottles.
"I believe this bill does move us further along to address this crisis,'' said Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, a New Haven Democrat. "I am sorry to hear that we will not have the unanimous, bipartisan vote that we had earlier this evening in the House.''
Senate Republican leader John McKinney voted against the bill, saying he was concerned not about what was in the bill - but what was not in the package.
"We are in agreement on many things,'' McKinney said at about 1:30 a.m. Thursday, saying the package was still short of closing the full deficit for the current fiscal year. "I think this package - although a step forward - is not a big enough step.''
Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams, the highest-ranking senator, responded immediately after McKinney's comments.
"This year, of all years, we cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good,'' Williams said. "We have such a challenge and so many difficult decisions, and when we balance the budget this year ... no one will be able to say that is a perfect solution. It virtually closes the deficit in this fiscal year.''
During the debate, Republicans said the multi-part package simply did not go far enough.
"It doesn't make the structural changes we need to make,'' said Sen. Toni Boucher, a longtime House member who is in her first year in the Senate.
One of the newest senators, Michael McLaughlin of Danbury, opposed the package, partially because the plan calls for using $220 million from various off-budget funds to balance the budget. Those funds, however, will be identified later by the budget-writing appropriations committee.
"Roughly 25 percent of what we're talking about in this bill is not real yet,'' he said on the Senate floor.
The bill's deficit-cutting highlights included:
$373.3 million from President Obama's federal stimulus package
$281.7 million from the "rainy day fund'' for fiscal emergencies
$280.6 million in cuts and revenue increases
$50 million in contract cancellations by the governor
$49.2 million in labor savings that still must be negotiated with state-employee unions
$40 million in federal Medicaid funds
http://blogs.courant.com/capitol_watch/2009/02/senate-approves-budget-bill-by.html
