State Representative Whit Betts (R-Bristol, Plymouth) and State Sen. Henri Martin (R-Plainville, Bristol) attended the Litchfield County Board of Realtors Legislative Night on Jan. 25 at the Torrington Elks Lodge.
During the event, area legislators gave an update to board members and guests regarding the state’s political climate and fielded questions and comments from the group.
“Businesses and taxpayers want state government to put its fiscal house in order. Over the last 5 years, the majority party in the legislature and this governor have failed to do so. Instead, the taxpayers have had $3.9 billion in tax increases imposed on them and they are saying loud and clear that they’ve had enough. They are leaving this state and taking their money with them. GE is leaving and Aetna may be right behind them. The state again is facing massive deficits. We need to stop the fiscal bleeding. The current band-aid approach of raising taxes to patch holes in the budget is short-sighted and clearly not working. We need to invest in long-term structural changes to the way we approach budgeting to put Connecticut on a better path and restore credibility and confidence in state government,” said Betts, according to a press release from the General Assembly Republicans.
The legislature was called into a special session to deal with the $350 million budget shortfall in December of last year by the governor. The Democratic controlled legislature passed a mitigation package to immediately reduce appropriations for state programs and transferred money from special funds and accounts, including $35 million from the Special Transportation Fund, to the General Fund to address the projected deficit for FY 2016, said the press release.
“The reason taxpayers do not trust their state government is because government never keeps it word,” Martin said, according to the press release. “Year after year, promises to the people of Connecticut are broken. The real estate conveyance tax was supposed to be temporary. Instead, the sunset of the tax was continually extended, and it ultimately became permanent. When the state lottery was set up, taxpayers were told proceeds would go to education. Instead those funds ended up going toward balancing the state budget. The taxes on gasoline are supposed to go into the Special Transportation Fund to repair our roads and bridges. Instead, that money is repeatedly raided to balance the budget. This pattern of broken promises to the taxpayers of Connecticut has created deep mistrust in their government and rightly so. In Hartford, Rep. Betts and I are working to make sure that promises made are promises kept.”
Despite mitigation efforts, the press release reported, the legislature’s non-partisan Office of Fiscal Analysis (OFA) announced last week that the budget is again out of balance for FY16. According to OFA, The new projection of $72.2 million is attributed to lower-than-expected revenues.
The 2016 legislative session convened on Feb 3. The state budget is expected to be a topic of considerable and ongoing debate.
State Rep. Whit Betts (R-Bristol, Plymouth)
State Sen. Henri Martin (R-Plainville, Bristol)