Sen. Edward Meyer, a key swing voter in the state Senate, voted against Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's tax package because it does not include any details about the ongoing union negotiations that are necessary for balancing the budget.
Meyer, a fiscally conservative Democrat on the tax-writing finance committee, said he opposed the package Thursday because legislators are "virtually ignorant'' of key details on Malloy's plans for $2 billion over two years in savings and concessions from the unions.
As a legislator in both New York State and Connecticut during his long career, Meyer said, "I have voted for tax increases in order to balance the budget, but not when I have had practically no idea of what will happen on the spending side.''
"If we vote today for this historical package of new taxes,'' Meyer told his colleagues early Thursday afternoon before the committee vote, "we and our constituents will be continuing mistakenly to support, for example, longevity bonuses, payment out of the public pensions at age 50, lifetime health insurance for our public employees and their spouses when they have only eight or 10 years of state service'' and what he described as "boondoggle programs such as Riverview children's hospital.''
Over the past 20 years, state spending has increased by 280 percent at the same time that inflation has risen by only about 90 percent, Meyer said.
"This budget history now requires our focus on responsible spending before we entertain an historical package of tax increases, particularly when we see that those tax increases are not sunsetted,'' Meyer said.
He added that the legislature is holding important committee votes Thursday before state officials have completely calculated all of the annual tax returns, which were not due this year until the later date of April 18.
When asked about Meyer's hesitancy to vote for the tax package, state Sen. Edith Prague said, "He's in a very Republican district.''
Prague, a liberal Democrat from Columbia, said she has no problems with Malloy's tax increases and the latest plan for imposing a luxury tax of 7 percent on expensive cars, yachts, and jewelry.
"I'm fine with that,'' Prague said of the tax package. "I'll take what I can get'' on the luxury tax.
"I think this is a great accomplishment for the budget and the legislature,'' Prague told Capitol Watch on Thursday. "No one is being desperately hurt. Pay a few more dollars in taxes? So be it. I don't see this as onerous at all.''
But state Sen. L. Scott Frantz, a Greenwich Republican, said that Meyer's analysis was dead-on accurate.
"I think Senator Meyer hit about 17 nails right on the head,'' Frantz told colleagues. "This [tax] end of the budget is out of teach with reality.''
