House Republican Press Release

April 12, 2007

Press Office: 860-240-8700

Rep. Burns: Appropriations Committee Budget will Accelerate Population, Job Losses in CT

Overall 16 Percent Spending Increase Would Mean Major Tax Increases; Hit Middle Class Hardest

The biennial budget approved by the Appropriations Committee Thursday would increase state spending by about 16 percent over two years and require major tax hikes that would accelerate population and job losses in Connecticut, state Representative Ron Burns said today.

“Although Connecticut has problems that we need to address, it is simply impossible to tackle all of them in one or two years,” said Representative Burns, R-Bristol, an Appropriations Committee member who opposed the budget proposal. “Connecticut has one of the heaviest tax burdens in the country and middle class taxpayers simply cannot afford the kind of tax increases that will have to be put in place to support this budget, which would increase by 10 percent in the first year alone.”

“To anyone who claims the runaway spending this budget proposes and the tax hikes that will come with it won’t affect the middle class, I would reply if you believe that, I have a few prime acres of swamp land in Florida I’d like to sell you,” Representative Burns said.

“We are one of the seven states that sustained the heaviest job losses in the country over the past few years and this budget will do nothing to reverse that trend. If anything, it will accelerate it,” Representative Burns said. “Connecticut’s job losses have been accompanied by a loss of population to the low tax states in the south and southwest, where jobs are plentiful.”

“The population losses we sustained between 1990 and 2000 resulted in the loss of one of our congressional seats. If this unsustainable budget is allowed to stand without major reductions in the expenditures it proposes, our economy will suffer, fewer jobs will be created and people will continue to leave the state in droves,” Representative Burns said.

“We are creating an environment that will force out the very people who would be expected to pay higher taxes if this budget is approved by the state legislature,” Representative Burns said. “If we want to keep the promises we made to our constituents about fostering a more favorable business climate and creating new jobs, we will have to come up with a truly sustainable budget over the next few weeks.”

“That said, I still intend to work with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to come up with a balanced, realistic approach to meeting the needs of the people of Bristol and to our constituents throughout the state,” Representative Burns said.