Union-organized ‘veto’ rally draws crowds

GOP blasted for cutting higher education, social service programs from budget

About 200 people gathered outside the Capitol Thursday at noon to support the governor’s promised veto of the Republican budget that passed last week with a handful of Democratic votes.

Organized by state unions, the noontime rally criticized Republicans for slashing higher education and social service programs.

“GOP Budget attacks workers,” said several signs held by crowd members. Others included “Tax the rich — not — teachers!” and “Veto anti-family budget.”

The GOP spending plan would be unfair to both students and women, said Cindy Wolfe Boynton, a professor at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport and president of the state chapter of the National Organization for Women.

“I worry for our students,” she said. “I’m worried for our state. And frankly I am just stunned by the type of cuts made in this budget. Included in this budget is not just the elimination of $22 million in need-based grants, but the complete elimination of funding that supplies other support and services for students who desperately need help learning basic math and English skills.”

It was the latest backand-forth over the budget that passed the Senate last Friday with three Democratic votes. In the House, five Democrats voted for it early last Saturday, including Rep. Kim Rose of

Milford. Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey, D-Fairfield, supported the measure in a preliminary vote, but then cast a ballot against it when the final vote was tallied at about 3:15 a.m.

Heading into Friday’s scheduled closed-door meeting with Republican leaders, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy held another event blasting some of the GOP budget’s provisions, including job training and the termination of the Commissioner’s School Districts and the Alliance School Districts for underperforming urban schools.

Malloy wants to provide additional support to the districts, while forcing richer towns to pay more, particularly into local teacher retirement programs, which they do not fund.

Still, he left the door open for compromise.

“There are things in my budget which I’m happy to change,” he said.

If the second quarter of the fiscal year starts October 1 without a budget, his executive order would end local school funding for 80 wealthy towns.

Those towns whose Education Cost Sharing grant would be zero include: Bethel, Brookfield, Darien, Easton, Fairfield, Greenwich, Milford, Monroe, Newtown, Oxford, Redding, Ridgefield, Shelton, Stratford, Trumbull and Westport.

Republican Senate Leader Len Fasano, R North Haven said the budget that passed the Legislature “with bipartisan support still manages to prioritize core services for working and middle class families.”

He said that local teacher pensions would not be shifted to towns and cities under the GOP plan.

Contributed photo Cindy Wolfe Boynton, a Housatonic Community College professor and state chapter president of NOW, spoke Thursday at a rally outside the state Capitol.