House Republican Press Release

October 15, 2008

Press Office: 860-240-8700

Rep. Hamzy: Legislature Should Lead By Example in Effort to eliminate $300 million State Deficit

Wasteful Spending at Capitol, Earmarks for Local Projects, could be cut to save Tax Dollars

As Bristol and Plymouth families tighten their belts to cope with worsening economic conditions, the state legislature should lead by example by eliminating wasteful and unnecessary spending at the State Capitol, state Representative William A. Hamzy said today.

“For several weeks now, we have been calling for decisive action by the state legislature to begin reducing Connecticut’s projected $300 million deficit before it gets worse,” said Representative Hamzy, who last month called for a special legislative session to address the growing deficit.

“With the Democratic leaders in the state House and Senate stubbornly insisting that we delay action on eliminating the deficit until after the November elections, there are actions we can take now to show we are serious about reducing the deficit,” said Representative Hamzy, R-78^th District.

“We can lead by example by eliminating wasteful and unnecessary spending at the State Capitol. If we are going to ask other state departments and agencies to cut their budgets, we should be making similar sacrifices by postponing esthetic improvements at the Legislative Office Building (LOB) and reducing printing costs for reference material that is readily available electronically,” Representative Hamzy said.

House and Senate Republicans today unveiled several proposed spending cuts to help reduce the budget deficit and highlighted state spending on discretionary local projects the state cannot afford.

House Republican Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr. of Norwalk, and Senate Republican Leader John McKinney of Fairfield cited numerous examples of projects at the LOB and the State Capitol building as well as legislative budget items - from $1.7 million for printing, to $255,000 for new signs and an unnecessary special legislative session – that the state cannot afford at a time when it is facing serious fiscal problems.

They called for bipartisan action to come up with slightly less than 2 percent in cuts to the state’s $18 billion budget rather than waiting until after the November elections to hold more hearings and do more studies. New York and many other states already are cutting spending and Connecticut should do likewise, they said.

In addition, Senator McKinney and Representative Cafero Wednesday wrote to Senate President Donald Williams, D-29^th District, and House Speaker James Amann, D-Milford, asking them to rescind a request from the General Assembly’s Office of Legislative Management for a 7.9 percent increase in the state legislature’s operating budget for 2009-2011.

Other examples of wasteful spending cited by House and Senate Republicans include:

· A special legislative session last December 5^th that cost taxpayers $1,000 per minute and could have been replaced with a technical session at virtually no cost.

· 100 yards of European black marble currently being replaced in the Legislative Office Building for $200,000 - for esthetic rather than safety reasons.

· $255,000 worth of new signs erected throughout the LOB and the legislative parking garage.

· Brand new Liquid Crystal Display screens recently installed in hearing rooms replacing old televisions that Republicans said they never used in the first place.

· State spending amounting to almost $300,000 for pagers - even though new technology has rendered them obsolete.

· Funding totaling more than $2.3 million doled out by Senate President Williams and House Speaker Amann to House and Senate Democratic legislators for 65 separate local projects - compared to zero for projects in Republican districts - because GOP legislators declined funding for such projects because of the state’s fiscal crisis.