House Republican Press Release

March 26, 2007

Press Office: 860-240-8700

Rep. DelGobbo: Dem Moves to Weaken Spending Cap will Lead to Runaway Spending, Tax Hikes

Dem Bills Would Exclude About $8 Billion in Expenditures from Cap

If attempts by the state legislature’s majority Democrats to weaken the state’s constitutional spending cap are successful, out of control state spending and major tax increases will follow in the next few years, state Representative Kevin M. DelGobbo, the House Ranking Member on the General Assembly’s Appropriations Committee, said today.

Two bills (House Bills 5806 and 6146) that were the subject of a public hearing today before the Appropriations Committee taken together would exclude about $8 billion in state spending from the spending cap, said Representative DelGobbo, R-Naugatuck.

“If these measures become law, they will open the floodgates to massive spending increases and lead to even more devastating tax increases to pay for it,” Representative DelGobbo said.

“In 1991, the people of Connecticut voted by an overwhelming 81 percent majority to approve the state’s constitutional spending cap. Since then, the General Assembly, which for most of the past 15 years, has been controlled by the Democrats, has failed to implement the spending cap in accordance with the will of the voters,” Representative DelGobbo said.

“Democrat legislators, who hold a veto-proof majority at the state legislature, claim the spending cap imposes unreasonable constraints on state spending,” Representative DelGobbo said. “In fact, the spending cap in its present form, has failed to restrain spending nearly enough. Almost every year, the majority Democrats have tried to get around the cap, and on some occasions, have succeeded. The result is that the citizens of Connecticut bear one of the highest tax burdens in the country. If these bills are enacted into law, the burden will become unbearable in the near future and more and more people – and the companies that employ them - will move out of state and never return.”

“Instead of constantly trying to circumvent the spending cap, the General Assembly’s majority Democrats should focus their efforts on living within it,” Representative DelGobbo said. “For starters, I would recommend voting for a measure I support (Senate Bill 320) that would require a three-fifths vote of both legislative chambers to approve new definitions of the kinds of spending that should or should not be subject to the constraints imposed by the spending cap. Connecticut’s working families, who are hit the hardest by tax increases to fund runaway spending, deserve no less.”