Democrats and Republicans found a fiscal package they could agree on Thursday, as the Finance Committee passed a tax plan as part of the legislature’s budget process.
The bipartisan harmony of the proceedings was in stark contrast to the angry disagreement in the Appropriations Committee earlier in the week, as it failed to pass a spending package.
The secret was that the Finance Committee’s plan included no new taxes, and in fact looks to decrease the tax burden.
Co-chair Senator John Fonfara said he sees the bill as a starting point.
"In terms of how we want to be seen by those in Connecticut -- and those that might be outside of Connecticut -- we are taking seriously the messages that we hear, either in terms of how people vote, or how they vote with their feet," he said. "We want them here, we want them to prosper here with their businesses or with themselves and their families."
But as new figures on income tax receipts appear to balloon coming year deficits to an estimated $4.7 billion, many lawmakers admitted the plan will likely have to change before a final budget is agreed.
But Republican Senator Scott Frantz said he welcomes the plan as an aspirational direction for the legislature.
"The intent of this bill, I believe, was to put our budget back onto a much stronger foundation that has much more appeal to the private sector, where people are really skeptical that we have a clue as to what we're doing up here as to managing our fiscal house," said Frantz.
Earlier in the day, Republicans in the legislature had issued their own full budget plan, partly as a rebuke to Democrats on the Appropriations Committee who blamed them for blowing up negotiations on a spending package.
The Republican document contains no tax rises, but instead makes deep cuts to many state services.
Senator Len Fasano, the Republican leader, said he recognizes there are difficult choices.
"There is a lot of pain, there's no question about it, because that's where we are economically," he said. "Each cut was thought out, understood, and there's a policy reason."
House Minority Leader Themis Klarides said Democrats aren’t being realistic about the depth of the problem.
"This has been coming for years, but every time we talked about it, we were doom and gloom, and the party of no," she said. "You can't fix a problem unless you acknowledge what it is. This state is falling apart, but there is a way out of it, and unless we make difficult decisions with courage and a vision, nothing is going to change."
Meanwhile, Governor Dannel Malloy has summoned legislative leaders from both parties for emergency talks next week, to discuss the fall in income tax receipts that seems to be threatening even more fiscal chaos.
