Malloy Calls For Compromise On Republican Budget Bill

HARTFORD, CT — Gov. Dannel Malloy once again vowed Monday to veto the Republican budget that passed the General Assembly last week.

“While I understand enough about the bill already to know that I will veto it, this is a document that was passed out of the General Assembly, and I owe it to the legislators who voted for it, and to the people of Connecticut, to give it a full vetting,” he said.

He also said that the Republican budget includes some tax increases.

Among some of Malloy’s chief concerns:

• Not funding pensions to full actuarial levels.
• Not sending enough aid to Hartford, which will likely mean the city will be forced to declare bankruptcy.
• No progress on fixing ECS grants for local school systems, which could pose legal issues in the future.
• Deep cuts to higher education, especially UConn.
• Less focus on developing transportation infrastructure.

Republicans successfully passed their budget with the support of a handful of Democratic legislators last week in an unexpected shift of power in the General Assembly. Three Democrats in the senate voiced concern about the Democrat budget that was a compromise between Malloy's proposals and that of Democratic legislators. The bill went on to the State House of Representatives where Republicans were joined by a handful of Democrats to pass the bill.

Despite his concerns Malloy said the budget will have to be a bipartisan solution.

“That means that an eventual budget can and likely should include Republican ideas, even ones that I don’t like,” he said. “And, if we want a bipartisan solution, Republicans will need to adopt some of the ideas from myself and other Democrats.”

Malloy said he is constitutionally limited by the lack of a budget should Oct. 1 come and the state will have to cut back expenses because it won’t legally have enough revenue going forward.

The governor spoke multiple times about pension obligations and kicking the can down the road, which got Connecticut into its fiscal mess in the first place.

“It makes for popular politicians, but it makes for a disastrous situation in the long run,” he said. “We need a budget that continues the process of reversing the mistakes of some of our predecessors, not compounding them.”

Image via MTA/Flickr Commons