"We were not in the room. Period."
Sen. Len Fasano
Democratic lawmakers are praising a budget deal that emerged over the weekend with Governor Dannel Malloy. But Republican legislators say they were left out of the talks.
The governor and lawmakers from his own party started the session with drastically different ideas on the budget. The governor wanted to fund his transportation initiatives, while lawmakers put an emphasis on social services.
"It's been a very difficult budget year," said state Sen. Beth Bye, appearing on WNPR's Where We Live. "We're dealing with limited resources and a lot of needs... We were able to make some of the investments in transportation infrastructure that the governor was looking for and the legislature was particularly concerned about some of the human services cuts. And we were able to restore the vast majority of those."
But Republican Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano said his party was systematically locked out of the negotiating room.
"Being in the room means you go through it and say, how about if we do this, and what do you think of that?" Fasano said. "We were not in the room. Period."
State Rep. Jeffrey Berger is co-chair of the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee. He said the Democrats kept Republican concerns in mind. But he also offered a practical political explanation about majority rule.
"The bottom line is the majority has put forward a balanced budget and we're going to vote on it today," Berger said. After backlash from corporations like General Electric, Aetna, and Travelers, the vote was delayed while additional changes are being made.
Later in the day, Berger faced grilling from Republicans like Representative Terrie Wood. She's on his committee, and she was frustrated by the lack of information. Before her committee voted, Wood asked Berger for more details about tax revenues.
"When will we be getting that?" she asked. "This is of enormous concern to my constituents."
"You'll be getting it when we vote on it," Berger responded.
"You're on the record with that comment," Wood said. "That doesn't respect an enormous amount of people that we represent."
Berger later said the representative would have the information she needed before the vote. Still, while Democrats are celebrating their collaboration with the governor, Republicans aren't.