Malloy being rejected by his own political party
By Mark Davis, News 8 Chief Capitol Correspondent Published: April 19, 2016, 1:48 pm Updated: April 19, 2016, 6:10 pm

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — Democratic leaders boycotted Tuesday’s budget meeting with the Governor and say they’ll have a plan ready late next week with just days to go in the assembly session and a billion dollar red ink hole staring everyone in the face.

When Gov. Malloy came to his capitol office Tuesday, he was scheduled for a face-to-face meeting with all legislative leaders on ways to finalize over $900-million in budget cuts, but only the Republican leadership showed up making progress on solving the red ink crisis impossible.

Related Content: Budget talks, more layoffs on tap this week

“Here we are in the infancy of conversations and they refuse to participate,” said State Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano (R-North Haven.) House Minority Leader Rep. Themis Klarides (R-Derby) adding, “They made the decision to not be in the room which I think was an irresponsible decision on their part but we are going to continue having those conversations to see where we can get.”

The Governor said he would meet again with the Republicans later this week and was a bit more diplomatic about his Democratic colleagues saying, “Adjusting to a new economic reality of slow growth is very hard and they have big constituencies.”

One of those big constituencies is the cities and towns, known as the ‘Connecticut Conference of Municipalities,’ that are now taking to the TV airwaves quoting recent newspaper editorials that claim the Malloy budget plan will result in local Property Tax hikes.

“It’s clear that what the Governor presented last week was a non-starter for everyone here,” said Speaker of the House Rep. Brendan Sharkey (D-Hamden.) In defending their boycott of the talks the Democratic leaders of the House said that the Governor knows his proposal cuts things that most Democrats will never vote for. Added Sharkey, “Major cuts to hospitals, property tax relief, which is huge, and, I think it only transfers the cost of government onto local government.”

The Speaker of the House says they don’t plan to have a budget plan until sometime next week after the consensus revenue estimates are in from the state tax department on receipts from the April 18th tax filing deadline. He keeps saying there might be a bump in revenue, but the Governor’s office says the numbers could go down making the deficit even worse. The Democratic leader in the Senate issuing a statement agreeing with the House Speaker.

http://wtnh.com/2016/04/19/gov-malloy-and-fellow-democrats-at-odds-over-state...

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