HIGBIE: Democrats Do Verbal Gymnastics on the State Budget

Submitted by Carl Higbie, associate RTC member, Greenwich

Democrats in Connecticut have been very outspoken on the recent budget, claiming success for simply passing it at all. Patting themselves on the back for… well… spending YOUR hard-earned
money.

My incumbent state senator Ryan Fazio has been the target of some no name Democratic opponent who recently became the laughingstock of national media after she invited him to her next GYN appointment. She branched out from her single issue of abortion to endorse the Democratic budget passed in Hartford. In an attempt to wildly misrepresent the entire content of the bill, she insinuated that the Republicans like Fazio did not vote for gas tax relief… The most comical part of these allegations is that you can actually read the bill and the proposed amendments, so why Democrats would openly deceive constituents is beyond rational minded folks… the truth is that yes, Republicans did vote against the bill as it stands but not because they voted against cheaper gas (which we had under a Republican president mind you) but rather voted against things like; section 84 of the budget that mandates “local and regional board of education shall provide free menstrual products… in women’s restrooms, all-gender restrooms and at least one men’s restroom, which restrooms are accessible to students in grades three to six”. So while people can’t feed their families, Democrats are putting tampons in the little boys room… Republicans voted against the provision giving healthcare services to illegal immigrants.

And when Ned Lamont touted that we have made “historic payments to outstanding pension debt” that will somehow “save residents $440 million a year” Republicans like Kim Fiorello said “ok great let’s give it back to residents”. But Democrats said no, we are going to spend it on other stuff… so you the taxpayer don’t save anything in reality.

And in the face of Democrats spinning all this garbage, they penned an op-ed asking “where have Republican’s been on major issues?” Fazio set the record straight. Noting that we are 4th lowest on personal income growth in the nation, over a billion in permanent new taxes, dozens of new regulations on small business, murder in our major cities is up 80%… Stating that “Republicans have proposed hundreds of bills to turn CT around” including the first income tax relief for the state in almost three decades. Keep in mind folks democrats have held the majorities for years…

Folks this is all documented, Democrats don’t want you to know that. Senate leader Bob Duff bragged on Twitter; “glad to be one of the 24 senators who voted to extend the gas tax cut…”

Yes, he did in fact vote for a gas tax relief but that was buried under a mountain of other garbage and THAT is why Republicans voted against it… want to know what else democrats voted for? They voted for an 11% increase in total spending, a 7% increase in general fund spending and over 300M of spending that’s not even accounted for. Republicans proposed amendments to increase total tax relief by double to 1.2B, as well as other spending cuts to offset the loss of revenue, but it was voted down by Democrats. It was Republicans that voted to lower the income tax on most residents from 5% to 4%, Democrats voted against it.

But you know what the Democrats really don’t want you to know? To offset the unleaded “gas tax holiday”, they slid in a little 9 cent diesel tax increase, raising it to almost double what the unleaded tax was, to 49 cents per gallon… for perspective this is almost double the revenue the oil companies make for actually producing the stuff… comical if it wasn’t true. Republicans voted to include the diesel tax exemption in this relief, Democrats said no. Literally everything that comes to market; food, goods, and especially the very gas your car needs is carried by trucks that run on diesel fuel. Trucking companies aren’t going to absorb that cost, it will be passed onto us, washing out any savings from any unleaded “gas tax holiday”.

Democrats do this all the time. They put one good thing a 673 page bill full of agenda driven nonsense, give reps less than a day to read it, vote on it and hope that we the people won’t do our own research. So who is really looking out for you? Maybe it’s time for new leadership in Hartford?