Senate GOP stress importance of state spending cap

(Feb. 2, 2007) As the legislature starts the budgetary process, Senate republicans this week held a news conference urging their colleagues to protect the integrity of the state’s constitutional spending cap.

More than 81 percent of Connecticut residents voted for the spending cap in 1992 requiring policy makers to say no to proposals that would increase spending when overall state spending is going to exceed taxpayers’ long-term ability to pay for it.

At the news conference, the senators made clear their opposition to efforts to exceed the cap. Senate republican leader Louis DeLuca said the spending cap is important because it forces legislators to prioritize, control spending and keep taxes low.

The senators said that without the spending cap, increases in spending could have resulted in a current budget of approximately $44.2 billion
compared with today’s $16.8 billion budget. And at that rate, they said taxes in Connecticut would be three times what they are today.

Senator William Nickerson said the spending cap is not a guideline, but it is the rule of the road. “We have never had a single budget that prospectively broke the spending cap,” said Nickerson.

Senator John McKinney who also spoke at the event said, “People of the state of Connecticut got it right when the spending cap was passed. The spending cap has been the taxpayers’ best friend. It has protected the taxpayers of the state of Connecticut from runaway government spending. It will continue to be the taxpayers’ best friend if we will maintain the integrity of the cap and honor the will of the people.”

Through the years, CBIA has advocated helping our economy grow and supports the spending cap. It is critical that state government maintains the integrity of the spending cap and works to reduce state spending.

For more information about the state spending cap, contact CBIA’s Pete Gioia at 860-244-1900.