Williams Pleased, Rell Angry After Vote

One week after casting aside Gov. M. Jodi Rell's mitigation plan to deal with the state's budget deficit, the Democratic-controlled Legislature passed its own version and shipped it over to the governor.  

On Tuesday afternoon, Rell said she had just received it and would not say if she would veto one, or both, of the two bills that make up the Democratic proposal.

Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams, the top Democratic in the Senate, said the bills approved in both chambers on Monday will take care of a good portion of the $337 million shortfall. Now, he said, it's up to Rell to make the necessary agency cuts to eliminate the deficit.

On Tuesday afternoon, Rell fired back. She says she has done everything in her power to make the cuts she can constitutionally make. 

The Democratic package, she said, contains no real budget cuts. And in an $18-billion plus budget, the Democrats sought to trim only $18 million from it, she said.  The Democratic effort is almost laughable.

Williams charged Rell with not taking action to reduce the costs within her own state agencies. In the Department of Social Services alone, he said, there are millions of dollars to be saved.

But Rell said it's the Democrats who don't get it. She said they're addicted to spending, that they can't help themselves and that they have to stop trying to "wish away" the state's financial problems.

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