State Rep. Gail Lavielle (R-143) and Senator Toni Boucher (R-26)
State Sen. Toni Boucher (R-26) and state Rep. Gail Lavielle (R-143) have issued press releases supporting an emergency deficit mitigation plan passed yesterday that balances the state budget for the remaining three months of this fiscal year.
“My caucus has worked with our colleagues across the aisle to produce a bipartisan package that closed a deficit of more than $200 million for fiscal 2016,” said Lavielle. “I voted for this legislation because it preserves critical services for those who need them most, and holds towns and cities harmless so that they are not left holding the bag in the last three months of the budget year.”
“This bipartisan deficit mitigation plan saves municipal aid, hospitals and social services and is a positive step forward after years of denial, delay, and inaction which only served to make Connecticut’s financial problems so much worse,” Boucher said.
Both agreed this will not be the end of the state’s fiscal woes by any means.
“With the looming deficit of almost $1 billion that will be our mitigation target for the fiscal year that begins this July 1, I remain gravely concerned that unless majority legislators agree to substantive structural changes on how we run and fund state government, Connecticut will continue to face the threats of diminished critical services to the needy, higher taxes, and deteriorating infrastructure,” Lavielle said.
Boucher pointed to the Democratic members who, she said, “still refuse to reform the most expensive and generous state employee fringe benefits and pensions.”
After clearing the state Senate by a vote of 33-3, the deficit mitigation package was taken up by the House of Representatives, where it was approved by a vote of 127-16.
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