Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney (D-New Haven) today released the following statement regarding the state budget:
“Three Democratic senators and six democratic representatives have voted for a shortsighted Republican budget that decimates funding for UCONN and the Connecticut state universities and community colleges, wipes out scholarship assistance for low and moderate-income students, abandons our capitol city to bankruptcy, contains unachievable lapses, severely reduces the Earned Income Tax Credit for the working poor, and posits actuarial savings in state pension contributions by undermining collective bargaining while ignoring the likelihood that these projected savings will be struck down in litigation as an impairment of existing contacts.
“So much for the Republicans’ supposedly ‘responsible and realistic’ budgeting practices.
“However, given the outcome in the state senate on Friday and in the House of Representatives on Saturday morning, and given Governor Malloy’s welcome veto commitment, we must renew our dedication to bipartisan negotiations in a final push to adopt a budget by October 1st to forestall the consequences of the Governor’s proposed executive order.”