Bacchiochi, Republicans Offer Alternative No Tax Increase Budget

HARTFORD—Rep. Penny Bacchiochi joined House and Senate Republicans recently in unveiling an alternative balanced budget that eliminates tax increases proposed by the majority party, while calling for concessions in health care and pension benefits from state workers that would save $662 million.

Further, the “No Tax Increase” budget described at a Capitol news conference Thursday preserves vital programs and services at 2007 funding levels, and it greatly reduces government costs through agency mergers, retirements and salary and benefit concessions. The two-year spending plan would not reduce municipal aid, and there’s no reduction in education funding to any town. Also, it restores the $500 property tax credit the legislature’s majority eliminated recently in their budget plan.

“We had to take a stand,” Bacchiochi said. “People in the towns I represent, and the state for that matter, already pay through the nose. Businesses get hit hard, too. I want to avoid taxing anyone more—especially at a time when people are already losing their jobs and companies are closing their doors.”

The plan issued Thursday includes elements from two other proposals on the table, making it a truly bipartisan budget. Gov. M. Jodi Rell set the “no tax increase” tone with her proposal, but Democrats shot holes in that plan. Their proposal called for the largest tax increase in Connecticut’s history.

“That plan could have used more creativity,” Bacchiochi said. “They focused on tax increase without hunting for the spending reductions that Connecticut residents have demanded.”

“For the foreseeable future our state will be saddled with budget problems—unless we change course by taking this crucial opportunity to restructure government,” she said. “We’ve offered a proposal that will push us toward that goal. It’s a real starting point.”

Republicans balanced their budget by combining state agencies, rolling back spending levels and offering state workers early retirement and bringing state employee benefits more in line with the private sector. It’s the type of changes residents have clamored for.

Bacchiochi said she’s ready to work with Rell and Democrats to produce a budget Connecticut can afford, and one that won’t drive more businesses out of state.

The highlights (download the presentation here) of the Republican alternative are:

• Early retirement to save more than $285 million;
• State worker concessions for salary, health care and pension benefits that save $662 million;
• Folding 23 agencies into six and implementing a hiring freeze to reduce overhead costs. Two more agencies would be merged into the General Fund;
• Overhauling the higher education bureaucracy that duplicates services and drives up tuition for families struggling to pay for college;
• Preserving school and municipal aid;
• Using the Rainy Day Fund for what it was intended – fiscal distress;
• Imposing $900 million in hard cuts;
• Restoring $25 million in municipal aid cut by Democrats and the $500 property tax credit for families earning as little as $46,000;
• Engaging private companies that can perform duties such as state park maintenance;

“We need to consider every responsible option for controlling spending and building efficiencies in government,” Bacchiochi said. “The business community has done it, we should do it too.”