House Republican Press Release

January 13, 2009

Press Office: 860-240-8700

STATE REP. HOVEY:  LEGISLATURE MUST ADDRESS DEFICIT IMMEDIATELY

Appropriations Committee Member Says ‘Business As Usual’ Won’t Work

State Rep. DebraLee Hovey (R-Monroe, Newtown) today said the Legislature must address the growing state deficit immediately. The non-partisan Office of Fiscal Analysis projects a deficit of nearly $350 million in the current fiscal year and nearly $6 billion during the next two years.

Legislative leaders have scheduled a January 14 vote for a deficit mitigation plan Governor M. Jodi Rell has proposed to address the current fiscal year’s deficit. However, in November 2008, the Legislature only approved measures to reduce about $71 million of the governor’s proposal to address the then-$300 million deficit.

“The state’s financial situation has residents in our towns very worried,” said Rep. Hovey, who serves as a member of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee. “People in Monroe and Newtown are either losing their jobs or seeing someone they know hit the unemployment line.  They are seriously concerned about tax hikes because it’s clear there is no way they can afford them at this time.”

Rep. Hovey added she has invited Monroe First Selectman Tom Buzi and Newtown First Selectman Joseph E. Borst to attend a roundtable at the State Capitol on January 27 to discuss the state’s budget situation and its corresponding impact on local budgets.

Rep. Hovey noted the state cannot take a ‘business as usual’ approach to the most serious fiscal problem since the state income tax was enacted in 1991. The General Assembly must fundamentally change the way state government does business by reorganizing and streamlining state agencies and analyzing the value of every single budget expenditure, she said.

“Voters who elected us know the Legislature is accountable for state budget,” said Rep. Hovey. “No rational person would run their own finances the way the state is conducting business right now. The magnitude of the deficit gives the state reason to completely overhaul its way of spending taxpayer dollars.”