Opinion

Opinion: Republicans fail all Connecticut residents

Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney told reporters on Friday that majority Democrats in the Senate have always planned for the state House of Representatives to make the first legislative vote on highway tolls. less Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney told reporters on Friday that majority Democrats in the Senate have always planned for the state House of Representatives to make the first legislative vote on highway ... more Photo: Ken Dixon / Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: Ken Dixon / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Opinion: Republicans fail all Connecticut residents 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Recently, several leading state Senate Republicans opined in the Hearst opinion section on the state budget to attack Democratic funding priorities for Connecticut. In the era of Donald Trump and the outright falsehoods that have become all too common in Republican politics, we will not repeat the accusations. As we have learned from President Trump, it is corrosive and damaging to our democratic institutions to repeat misrepresentations and fabrications. Facts and honesty matter.

The truth is that Connecticut Republicans have no actual budget proposal, no specific revenue choices and no overall plan not only for the most vulnerable in our state but for everyone. If they truly intended to argue in good faith, the GOP would have submitted its own budget proposal during the legislative session, allowing for legislators, the media and the people to debate and comment on the merits of their ideas.

After passing a bipartisan budget for fiscal year 2017-18 and 2018-19, the state entered the 2019 legislative session with a $3.7 billion projected deficit. Democratic legislators and Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont proposed numerous alternatives over the year to close the budget gap while protecting critical services and sustaining investments in our economy. Ultimately, a balanced budget passed that not only closed this deficit but grew the state’s rainy day fund to $2.7 billion. The choices in this budget were not easy but were necessary to govern the state and strengthen Connecticut’s fiscal position.

During this entire debate, Republicans proposed nothing. They complained about certain aspects of spending and revenue but had no actual proposal and never even attempted to close the $3.7 billion deficit. One cannot responsibly oppose a cut in spending or an increase in revenue unless he or she forthrightly states the reason for the reduction and/or specifies an alternative revenue choice. That lack of clear priorities is not how to run a household budget and certainly not how to run an entire state budget.

So why would Republicans not propose a budget? Simply put, it is all politics.

In 2017, the Republicans proposed and passed a budget which was ultimately vetoed by Gov. Malloy. Unfortunately for Republicans, after that budget passed, the House and the Senate, the media and the public actually looked into the details, which were disastrous in many areas of policy.

The Republican budget would have raised over one billion dollars in new taxes and fees, including a new teacher tax on 44,000 teachers for an average of $1,500 a year and raising income taxes by $153 million on about 200,000 state residents who receive the Earned Income Tax Credit. In addition, it would have reduced UConn’s state grant by $309 million, cut the state university and community college system by $93 million, and eliminated scholarships for nearly 15,000 low-income students.

Had this budget taken effect, it would have caused chaos across the state due to shoddy bookkeeping and fake savings. On top of a proposed $700 million in unattainable labor cuts, it would have slashed state salaries by an additional $100 million, without elaborating on where salaries would be cut. Another unspecified $40 million in “policy revisions” further muddies the water, not to mention the proposed $18 million in savings from an unexplained UConn Health Center public-private partnership. How does a budget with over a billion dollars in tax hikes need to lean on hundreds of millions in unexplained, undetailed savings?

Thanks to Gov. Malloy’s veto, the people of Connecticut never had to endure the impact of this Republican budget, but the public backlash was fierce and came from all areas of the state. Republicans did not like being held accountable for the decisions they were forced to make in creating a budget, even an unbalanced budget.

Fast forward to 2019. Connecticut Republicans saw their numbers in the House and Senate shrink drastically due to Democratic candidates holding Republicans accountable for this very budget. Voters agreed that while the eventual bipartisan budgets for fiscal year 2017-18 and 2018-19 were not perfect, they were far better than the vetoed Republican alternative. Now the new Republican strategy for the 2020 elections is to simply not propose a budget. You cannot nail Jell-O to a wall and you cannot pin a budget on Connecticut Republicans. However, this tactic will not stop Republicans from complaining about anything and everything.

Republicans are hoping the people of Connecticut will only hear these complaints and not know that they have no solutions of their own. They hope that strategy might work for them politically in the short term, but from the standpoint of having an effective democratic representative government, Republicans are failing all of us by playing the partisan game when bipartisan statesmanship is needed.

Sen. Martin M. Looney serves as President Pro Tempore and represents New Haven, Hamden, and North Haven.

Sen. Bob Duff serves as Senate Majority Leader and represents Norwalk and Darien.

Sen. John Fonfara serves as Senate Chair of the Finance, Revenue, and Bonding Committee and represents Hartford and Wethersfield.

Sen. Cathy Osten serves as Senate Chair of the Appropriations Committee and represents Columbia, Franklin, Hebron, Lebanon, Ledyard, Lisbon, Marlborough, Montville, Norwich, and Sprague.