Budget: Shared Sacrifice, Fair Sacrifice
AFL-CIO president speaks on governor's budget
By Jeff Cohen - WNPR
Published: Feb 17, 2011
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Labor On Budget
Reaction to Governor Dannel Malloy's budget kept coming the day after he presented it. As WNPR's Jeff Cohen reports, labor unions say Malloy should pick on someone else.
Malloy has often said that what the state should expect from his budget is shared sacrifice. Now, some in Hartford are taking his words and using them differently.
"All of us, as the governor said, shared sacrifice. We agree. And we want to make sure that share is fair."
That's house speaker Chris Donovan. He was speaking with John Olsen, head of the state's AFL-CIO. Here's Olsen:
"We hear about shared sacrifice. Connecticut working families didn't create this mess but we're left with the tab and told share in the sacrifice."
Olsen doesn't like Malloy's plan to come to state employee unions and ask for two billion dollars in concessions over the next two years.
"State employees are erroneously being defined as a problem, their wages and benefits deemed unsustainable. What's unsustainable is that we allow the wealthiest in our state to pay the smallest share of their income in state and local taxes.
"Going after state employees for more concessions isn't going to add one job."
When asked how much more money the state should raise in taxes to balance its budget, Olson didn't answer the question head on. He did say he thought taxes should make up a larger portion of the package than Governor Malloy has proposed.
For WNPR, I'm Jeff Cohen.
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