House Republican Press Release

April 17, 2007

Press Office: 860-240-8700

DEMOCRATS LOOK ONLY FOR ‘UNION LABEL’  TO HAND OUT MILLION$$$ FOR NURSING HOME WORKERS

OTHER WORKERS LEFT OUT IN THE COLD

HARTFORD – Republicans today blasted a Democratic effort to shovel millions in benefits to unionized nursing home workers yesterday while ignoring non-unionized workers doing the exact same jobs.

Republicans also continued their criticism of the massive spending increases in the proposed Democratic budget, saying their misguided approach will lead to fiscal catastrophe.

 “There is enough pain in this offensive proposal, masquerading as a tax cut, to go around for a lot of people in Connecticut,’’ said House Republican Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr. of Norwalk. “Just one example: The Democrats want to give their union friends $10 million in added benefits but nothing for workers who do the exact same job but don’t go by the ‘Union Label.’”

The Democratic-controlled Appropriations Committee approved the union-friendly nursing home bill yesterday along strict party lines. A Republican effort to treat the nursing homes equally, regardless of whether their workers pay union dues, similarly on a party line vote. 

“This is not grounded in any reasonable fiscal policy. This is purely political and heavy-handed and patients and workers will suffer for it,’’ Cafero said. The stated goal in going forward with the bill was to provide more funding for nursing homes with the highest percentage of Medicaid patients. That plan got hijacked when the Democrats cut non-union homes out of the legislation.

Cafero said the Democratic proposed spending $1.7 billion more in their two-year plan and want to raise income taxes by 40 percent at the upper income brackets. The proposal will increase taxes on more than $250,000 workers. Our revenue stream will become more narrow and more unstable Cafero said if the Democratic plan goes through. “A slight flutter in the financial markets and we will be in a huge fiscal hole,’’ he predicted.