Republicans React To

Democrats’ Proposed Cuts

By Susan Haigh

Associated Press

HARTFORD –The governor’s budget chief gave Democrats cautious praise Monday for offering more than $200 million in spending cuts, a week before the new fiscal year.

But Marc Ryan said he was worried about whether some of the proposed reductions were “real” or not.

“I don’t want to poison the environment we’re working in now, so I don’t want to characterize them as deal breakers,” Ryan said, after meeting for about 90 minutes behind closed doors with Democratic leaders. “But there are some concerns I have there.

“There were some real cuts put on the table, but I’m a little dubious right now about whether we’re where we want to be,” Ryan said.

Democratic legislative leaders and Gov John G. Rowland’s administration have been at odds for weeks on how to cover about $450 million of next fiscal year’s projected $1 billion deficit. Until Monday night’s meeting, both sides had not met in more than a week.

Senate President Pro Tem Kevin B. Sullivan, D-West Hartford, said the meeting was positive, but added that he was not any more optimistic about reaching a compromise in time.

“We have done in excess of $200 million in spending reductions. We are confident they will withstand fiscal scrutiny,” Sullivan said. “They may have policy differences with some of them and we’d be willing to talk about those policy differences.”

With time quickly running out, Rowland stepped in last Friday and invited legislators and Ryan to meet at the governor’s mansion and negotiate a deal. The new fiscal year begins July 1 and Rowland has said he’ll be forced to lay off state workers if a revised budget is not agreed upon.

Ryan said he hopes a budget framework can be worked out. The two Republican leaders of the House and Senate said they did not see anything in the Democrats’ list of cuts to make them any more optimistic that a deal can be reached in time. But they said there was some hope because both sides were finally meeting together.