Earlier today, Democratic leaders of both houses of the General Assembly joined with the governor and lieutenant governor in sending a letter to the executive director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities offering to work collaboratively with the organization and mayors and first selectmen from across the state to explore changes to state statutes to give municipalities more definitive information and time to adopt local budgets. The Republican leaders immediately rejected the offer.
In response to the Republican’s statement explaining their refusal to consider the idea, Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney (D-New Haven) today released the following statement:
“It’s hard to understand how providing towns and cities with better information as they seek to set their budgets is a bad thing; however, it seems the Republicans have spent so long voting ‘no’ on every budget-related matter that they are unable to agree to even the most common-sense proposal to help local taxpayers,” said Senator Looney.
Senator Looney continued, “The Democrats are willing to work cooperatively with, and at the request of, local mayors and first selectmen to help provide more concrete information on state-provided aid for municipalities.”