Proposed Municipal Cuts Off the Table

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has agreed to take potential cuts in municipal aid “off the table” in exchange for laying off another 1,000 state employees, according to the CTNewsJunkie report.

“Our goal has been achieved: Connecticut has a budget in place that is balanced honestly, with no gimmicks.  To be clear, that’s not a reason to celebrate," Malloy said in a press release sent at 2:30 a.m. Friday. "The $1.6 billion deficit we just closed involves a lot of pain for a lot of people in the form of thousands of layoffs and deep spending cuts.  But putting Connecticut on firm fiscal footing – which is what we’ve done – sends an important, much-needed message to the business community and to Wall Street.  Now people will know we’re serious about getting our fiscal house in order, and now we can re-focus our attention on job creation."

The layoffs would come in addition to the 5,500 previously announced. 

“While I think the House should’ve taken up the labor reforms I proposed, I’m glad we’ve at least started the conversation in a real way," Malloy said the press release. "We need to make the relationship between the state and our employee base sustainable, something it currently is not.  Whether through collective bargaining or the legislative process, or by some other means, this issue of how we compensate our state employees isn’t going away."

The bill passed extends the deadline for the General Assembly to approve the SEBAC agreement from June 30 to Aug. 31, so the unions can still change their minds. If they did so, there would be another special session and if passed thousands of layoffs will not take place.

“I’ve been asked many times over the past few days about rumors regarding SEBAC and what they might or might not do, so let me be clear," he added. "If they choose to ratify the agreement that was recently turned down, and if they do so in a timely fashion, much of the pain that’s been inflicted over the past few days can be reversed.  If they end up not ratifying the agreement, then the budget we now have in place is the one we’ll live with for the next two years."

According to The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities Canton was set to lose about $66,000, mostly from Town Aid Road Grants.

Avon would have lost $81,702, according to a CCM report.

CCM predicted Farmington would have lost $236,737. 

Simsbury was going to lose $97,368.

The news came after legislators convened Thursday to begin a special session to deal with the projected $1.6 billion deficit in the state budget left by the rejected concession deal with state employees.

“This has been a productive six months, a time period during which we have brought more change to Hartford than has been seen around here in a long, long time," Malloy said. "Change doesn’t come often, or easily – but I’m determined to continue changing the way state government does its business so that we can create jobs and jumpstart this economy.”

Friday marks the first day of the new fiscal year. 

The bill the General Assembly reviewed Thursday is available on the state website