There seems to be a disconnect between Gov. M. Jodi Rell and her staff, Speaker of the House Chris Donovan, D-Meriden, said Friday afternoon following Rell’s promise to veto the revenue bill.
“If we’re going to add more spending to the budget we have to find the revenue to do it,” Donovan said. “Now she wants us to add dollars back…and she wants us then not to have the funding to do it.”
He said if she follows through on her veto then the first things the Democrats are going to cut are going to be the items she wanted restored.
The two sides, according to Donovan, had an informal agreement to add back the debt service for the New Haven rail yard, a item Rell wanted, and the Democrats wanted to make sure there were no increases in fares for rail and bus commuters.
Donovan said there was an agreement before the budget was passed to add these items back in the implementation language.
“In some ways it feels like we’re doing the budget fight all over again,” Donovan said.
“The only people who have been double crossed are the taxpayers of our state— who have been double-crossed by the Democrats,” Rell’s spokesman Chris Cooper, said. “Governor Rell will continue to do everything in her power to protect the families of Connecticut.”
Democratic lawmakers were coy about the revenue increases saying they didn’t increase spending, but Republican lawmakers weren’t buying it.
Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Southport, said earlier this week that the idea that the governor wanted these programs restored is “pure fiction.” He said the Democrats are “claiming to be the heroes for the fire they started.”