House Republican Press Release
December 29, 2008
Press Office: 860-240-8700
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Rep. Hamzy Receives leadership; Committee Assignments
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State Representative William A. Hamzy has been re-appointed as a Deputy House Republican Leader for the 2009 – 2010 legislative sessions by House Republican Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk.
Representative Hamzy, R-78th District, served as one of the House Republican Caucus’s two Deputy Republican Leaders during the 2007-2008 legislative sessions. State Representative Themis Klarides, R-114th District, who also served as one of Representative Cafero’s deputy leaders in 2007-08, was re-appointed to the position for 2009-2010 as well.
Representative Hamzy also was appointed to the General Assembly’s Judiciary, Banks, Energy & Technology, Executive and Legislative Nominations, and Regulations Review committees.
“Bill Hamzy’s leadership was critical to the success we had over the past two years in promoting our legislative initiatives and heading off major tax increases that would have aggravated the state’s current recession,” Representative Cafero said. “Even though Connecticut is not facing the enormous budget deficits many other states in the northeast and elsewhere in the country are expecting, we are still looking at an estimated $356.3 million deficit for the current fiscal year and projected deficits of more than $6 billion for fiscal years 2009-10 and 2010-11. I will be relying on Bill’s leadership abilities as much as I did over the past two years as we work to enact alternative budget proposals to bring us out of the recession and put our citizens back to work.”
“Our state’s economy is in serious trouble,” said Representative Hamzy. “The deficit we forecast last spring continues to worsen, business growth is stagnant and unemployment is growing. The people of Connecticut expect us to act boldly and decisively over the next few months to eliminate the deficit and stimulate economic growth. We will be offering several proposals within the next few weeks to confront those challenges. In these difficult economic times, bipartisanship is essential to bring our state out of the recession as soon as possible – and without the permanent loss of employers and productive citizens that came in the wake of previous economic downturns. I will be focusing all my efforts on achieving those goals in the weeks and months ahead.”
As a deputy house minority leader, Representative Hamzy will be working directly with Representative Cafero in developing the House Republican Caucus’ legislative agenda and strategy for enacting specific legislative initiatives during the 2009 – 10 legislative sessions; help ensure other caucus leaders understand and promote the caucus agenda with rank and file members; and participate in negotiations with House majority leaders and the governor on the budget and other major bills.