Lyddy: State’s Failure To Bid For Stimulus Funds Is ‘A Disgrace’

By John Voket

Newtown’s State Representative Chris Lyddy broke ranks following a special session this week, protesting what he called his fellow Democrats’ lack of leadership, and the state’s inability or unwillingness to go after tens of millions in federal stimulus funds to aid the state’s most needy.

The Democratic-controlled General Assembly met in special session on Tuesday, but did not vote on Governor M. Jodi Rell’s proposal aimed at making the law more amenable to a federal judge who struck it down as unconstitutional.

Lawmakers also did not act on her plan to address the state budget deficit.

In a brief phone call to The Bee following the session, Rep Lyddy, who works in the social services arena by day, said the state could easily reduce or even completely offset and budget cuts targeting health, human, and social service initiatives if officials were more aggressive about going after more than $130 million the Obama administration is making available to support or protect these very services.

Rep Lyddy also said he was “extremely disappointed in the Democratic leadership’s inability to act” during the one-day session December 15 to reduce the state deficit.

Instead, Democratic legislative leaders said Tuesday they were working on a plan to close the state’s budget deficit, dismissing Republican Gov Rell’s proposal as a jobs killer that will hurt important programs.

The governor had called the General Assembly back to the Capitol to vote on her deficit-cutting plan, but lawmakers gathered for only about 15 minutes before heading home. Democratic leaders said they hoped to return in the coming weeks, possibly before the end of the year or even before Christmas, to vote on a different plan.

“We’re certainly aware of the urgency of the present situation,” said Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, D-New Haven.

Gov Rell, however, disagreed. In a sharply worded statement, she said she was “bitterly disappointed” that Democrats took no action Tuesday and she accused them of not recognizing “the very real problems the state is facing.”

The current two-year, $37.6 billion state budget approved in September is already $467 million short. The figure, however, includes a planned $130 million sales tax reduction that has been scrapped because of falling state revenues.

Gov Rell’s plan calls for freezing enrollment in the state’s Charter Oak Health Plan for the uninsured, cutting state aid to cities and towns by three percent, or $84 million, and cutting state agency budgets by more than $31 million.

Children’s advocates have decried Gov Rell’s proposed reductions in funding for youth-related programs, including school-based health clinics and daycare programs.

Senate President Donald E. Williams, Jr, D-Brooklyn, said much of the governor’s plan does no’t work, such as the proposed cuts in municipal aid.

“A lot of it has fallen apart,” he said. “We’re trying to pick up the pieces and put something together.”

Gov Rell urged lawmakers to act before the end of 2009, and eliminate the deficit through lasting cuts and not additional borrowing and higher taxes. She said she will not sign a deficit-cutting bill that increases taxes or borrows more money.

“The new taxes and fee increases contained in the current budget are not generating the levels of revenue they were predicted to bring in, so why would even higher taxes be the answer now?” she asked, adding how more borrowing will hurt the state’s credit rating.

Rep Lyddy said he was incensed when he learned the state only applied for $4 million when programs in Connecticut might be eligible for more than $130 million in federal help under the Temporary Assistance For Needy Families program.

He said these funding streams are targeted to sustain or enhance workforce development, job training, foreclosure relief, and transportation.

“It’s a disgrace,” Rep Lyddy said, “it’s criminal that we aren’t going for this money when people are suffering from this recession.”

“As a freshman legislator it’s extremely frustrating — people need relief, not rhetoric,” Rep Lyddy said, adding that based on the verified increase in traffic at the statewide network of food banks alone, the state could have accessed additional funding streams he said went untapped.

“We can qualify on that criteria alone,” Rep Lyddy said. “And that money could free up state money or prevent cuts to other support programs to balance the budget.”

(Associated Press reports were used in this story.)