Calling a list of cuts "deep and devastating," leaders in the Connecticut legislature on Monday pressed Governor M. Jodi Rell to begin bipartisan talks.
The Office of Fiscal Analysis projected Connecticut's deficit over the next two years will total $8.7 billion dollars -- a figure that is $2.7 billion higher than Gov. Rell's projection in her budget address.
Gov. Rell has called for a balanced budget, without any tax increases.
Lawmakers received a list from their colleagues of cost-cutting measures that might fill a $2.8 billion budget gap, Senate President Donald E. Williams, Jr., and Speaker of the House Christopher Donovan said in a statement Monday. They reiterated that these are cuts that they do not endorse, but that may be needed (in addition to Rell's cuts) in order to plug the budget dam.
"We hope that Governor Rell will now publicly agree that the deficit we face is far greater than that addressed by her budget," Sen. Williams said. "If the governor does not agree that her budget would require the cuts that have been identified in the report, we would ask that she tell us and the people of Connecticut what alternative cuts she would make to balance her budget."
The Governor's staff fired back at the scare tactics later Monday afternoon. Her spokesman, Chris Cooper, said, "The Democrats say they want to 'scare the public' by showing them what $2 billion in cuts look like. The people of Connecticut are plenty scared already ... Now that the Democrats have put their $2 billion in cuts on the table, they should also put their $2 billion in new taxes on the table and then ask our citizens which they are more afraid of."
