GOP Provides Budget with No Tax Increases

Republicans in the General Assembly's House and Senate provided their vision on what spending should like for the next two years.

Their spending plan is a two $40 billion plan that spends $300 million less than Gov. Dannel Malloy's budget that proposed back in February and it removes some of the most controversial elements that the governor had proposed.

The budget includes no tax increases, maintains the state's payments for teacher pensions without shifting costs to cities and towns, changes the way local education is funded which is aimed at sending more money to cities and towns.

Republicans say their budget should be the starting point for negotiations with Democrats, which they claim weren't serious over the past two months.

“We can be a better state than what we have but we got to get real with the consequences facing our state," said Sen. Len Fasano, the Republican President Pro Tem. "We have to get real with what we have and what we see and not turn a blind eye and get to business. It starts now.”

There are some cutbacks, however, in the GOP plan. Even though it spends less than the Malloy proposal, it withholds more than $300 million that had been reserved for cities and towns, meaning operating budgets would need to be adjusted. It also cut property tax breaks for middle class families without children, saving $80 million in the budget, but taking $200 away from hundreds of families that claimed the break.

The GOP budget was unveiled on the same day news circulated that income tax receipts are down by a combined $1.1 billion over the next two fiscal years. The update could prove to be devastating to already fragile state finances facing a $3.5 billion budget over the next two-year cycle.

Malloy's spokesperson Kelly Donnelly said in a statement that the GOP plan, "appears to be an earnest effort to balance our state budget."

Democratic House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz said he wants to put partisanship aside and come up with a bipartisan solution.

"Let’s just stop, no political stuff, no reelection stuff, let’s just get into a room and do what’s right for the state of Connecticut.”

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