Governor Dannel P. Malloy released a budget-cutting plan Friday that would drastically cut a wide variety of state programs - from rail service and ferries to bridge inspections and arts subsidies.
The deep cuts would be among the largest in state history and would involve closing courthouses, welfare offices, motor vehicles branches, law libraries, a juvenile jail, and beds for patients undergoing detoxification. The plan also calls for increasing fares on the Metro-North Commuter Railroad by 15 percent and eliminating two seasonal ferries across the Connecticut River.
Some of the largest cuts would be rendered on the border town of Enfield, where three key employers - the courthouse, a major prison, and the Department of Motor Vehicles office - are all slated to close.
"In less than a week, the Malloy administration has announced the closing of three of our major state facilities: Enfield Correctional Institution, the Enfield DMV, and the Enfield Courthouse,'' said Sen. John A Kissel, an Enfield Republican who has represented the district for nearly two decades. "The shuttering of these facilities comes as a one, two, three punch to our part of the state and will no doubt have a negative impact on our local economy. I trust that Enfield is not the only area of the state taking these multiple targeted hits, but these closures will certainly make taxpayers' lives even more difficult here in north central Connecticut."
But Malloy's senior adviser, Roy Occhiogrosso, told reporters at the state Capitol that "Enfield is not being targeted.''
The cuts were proposed Friday by Malloy to fill a budget gap of $1.6 billion over two years that would have been filled by a savings-and-concessions package with the state employees unions. The unions, however, rejected the deal that would have provided a four-year, no-layoff provision in exchange for two years of wage freezes and changes in healthcare and pension benefits.
The top union leaders are meeting Monday to consider whether to change their by-laws in order to allow a new vote on a revised deal between the Malloy administration and the unions. If the unions agree to the deal, the deep cuts would be largely avoided.
"Most of it - if not close to all of it,'' said Occhiogrosso.
Malloy's 108-page package includes a wide variety of cuts, including eliminating the Shoreline East train service from Old Saybrook to New Haven on weekends, starting in November. That service, which had started in July 2008, covers 32 weekend trains - and the cut would save more than $4 million in the second year of the two-year budget.
The proposal would close the buildings at seven rest areas on interstate highways, although motorists could still pull off the road to rest or walk the family dog. The restrooms will be closed, and there are no plans to install portable toilets at the heavily used rest areas, including two in Willington along Interstate 84 that receive heavy truck traffic and increased use in the summer months by families heading east to Cape Cod.
Malloy's budget would also reduce the subsidy for buses by $4 million, which means reducing 40 buses and the 50 employees who work on them. Malloy will also reduce the frequency of inspections for new bridges, which would push the inspections on low-risk bridges to every four years, rather than every two years.
The package also reduces OT at the DOT, along with saving $100,000 per year by reducing the number of state-owned cars that can be garaged at employees' homes.
Separately, the judicial branch - which has autonomy as a separate branch of government - released a plan Friday that would close four courthouses, including Enfield, and six law libraries across the state. It would also close a juvenile jail in New Haven and a juvenile court in Danbury.
Malloy, who was in Salt Lake City on Friday for the National Governors Association summer conference, issued a joint statement with Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman about their plans for $700 million in cuts to balance the state budget in the current fiscal year.