Trumbull Lawmakers Decry Malloy Budget Veto

TRUMBULL, CT - From the Connecticut House Republicans: State Representatives David Rutigliano (R-123), Laura Devlin (R-134) and Ben McGorty (R-122) condemned the governor’s decision to veto the Bi-partisan state budget that passed the General Assembly on September 16th.

“With this veto, the governor has put this state into complete chaos,” said Rep. Rutigliano. “Trumbull taxpayers will be forced to feel the undue budget pain under the governor’s executive order. The Governor’s has repeatedly said he will punish well-run towns like Trumbull in favor of mismanaged cities on the brink of fiscal bankruptcy. This budget was not perfect, however it did not contain the over 1.2 billion in new taxes proposed by the Democrats, I call on the General Assembly to override the governor’s veto.”

“I am extremely disappointed the governor didn’t take action to move the state forward. Our bi-partisan agreement stopped the budget cycle of spending more money than the state has and taxing residents more than they can afford. This was an opportunity for real change to put Connecticut on a new path and met the Governor's criteria of a no tax increase budget,” said Rep. Devlin. “It's too bad he can't get past the 'not invented here' syndrome and look at what's best for our state - like the courageous Democrat legislators who stood up in support of the budget."

“It has come down to the governor preferring to run the state by cruel executive orders that slash education funding to our schools than to sign a budget that made some tough choices, but earned bipartisan support in both chambers to get to his desk,” said Rep. McGorty. “We are now the only state in the U.S. that continues to operate without a budget. The governor needs to recognize that the deal he negotiated with Democratic leaders with massive tax increases and new taxes on things like cellphone bills, that ultimately failed, isn’t the answer to our state troubles. I hope my colleagues in the General Assembly join with me in supporting an override of the governor’s veto to put this bipartisan budget in place.”

The governor’s veto means that a state budget will not be in effect by the October 1st Education Cost Sharing (ECS) payment deadline leaving several towns, including Trumbull to face across the board cuts in municipal aid, education funding, and elimination of core government services.

Image via Connecticut House Republicans