Governor Malloy is facing backlash over his budget plan. New Haven Mayor John DeStefano was at the State Capitol Thursday night to tell lawmakers how it could hurt his city.
Some New Haven charter school testified as well, pleading for so called equal funding. “We make goals for ourselves because we don’t have the resources that most New Haven schools get,” said Aminah Muhammad, a junior at Amistad High School in New Haven.
She testified along with countless other students--she believes her school is not given the funding others are. She was happy to see Mayor DeStefano. "It did show he was in support of us and doing his job as mayor,” Muhammad said.
Mayor John DeStefano made a rare appearance at the legislative office building. He says the budget on the table right now is not good enough. "We’ve been doing tough budgets in New Haven for five years; raising property taxes, laid off police officers in New Haven. It’s been hard,” DeStefano added.
He acknowledges that the legislature and Governor Malloy have hard decisions ahead of them but he feels it’s especially unfair to New Haven. “I don’t think that is right to the people who live in our communities,” DeStefano noted. “A lot of residents and employees of New Haven are making a lot of sacrifices.”
While there have been some sacrifices DeStefano says New haven has added jobs and has a school reform initiative under way that he’d hate to see stall out.
The mayor didn’t make any specific recommendations to the state. But he says he’s had to make difficult cuts in his city and wants Connecticut lawmakers to do the same.
