While most of the state was sleeping in the early morning hours on Saturday, the Republicans with the help of a few Democrats, passed an anti-worker budget that attacks collective bargaining, attacks the wages of construction workers, guts our clean election program, and raises taxes on the working poor.
We need to fight back.
The Governor has issued a statement declaring his intent to veto but corporate lobbyists and their supporters smell blood, and they’re pushing Malloy to sign this devastating budget.
That’s why it’s important for him to hear from you.
Click here to email the Governor and urge him to VETO this awful budget.
Who’s pushing this anti-worker budget? The CT Business & Industry Association, CCM, and the Koch brothers-funded Yankee Institute are all unleashing their supporters to try to get the Governor to change his mind.
You can also call the Governor’s office at (860) 566-4840 to urge him to stay strong and veto this as soon as it arrives at his desk.
What’s so awful about this budget?
- Attacks collective bargaining rights: eliminates freedom for state workers to negotiate health care and retirement security, and makes significant changes to municipal collective bargaining;
- Guts our clean elections program: by gutting the program created after the Rowland scandal, this budget opens up the floodgates for dark money in our elections;
- Raises thresholds on prevailing wage projects: this will effectively lower the wages for thousands of hard-working construction workers;
- Increases taxes on the working poor: by drastically cutting the earned income tax credit, the working poor will have to pay $75 million more in taxes while the wealthiest 1% don’t pay a penny more;
- Axes the budget for UConn: the state’s premier public university gets axed over $300 million over the biennium which will result in devastating cuts to the school and increased tuition;
- It’s completely unbalanced: per the nonpartisan fiscal office, the budget creates huge deficits over $6 billion from 2020-2022;
- And so much more: cuts jobs programs at the DOL, cuts health programs, eliminates the Jobs Funnels Project, excludes funding to prevent Hartford bankruptcy, and more.
Let the Governor know that you support his intent to veto this devastating budget.
If you’re on Twitter, here are some sample posts you should feel free to share:
- The austerity budget that passed the legislature shows absolute contempt for CT's working families https://goo.gl/FxaqmU#VetoTheBadBudget
- I join @ConnAFLCIO, @AFSCMECT4 & CT @BldgTrdsUnions demanding #FairShareBudgetCT that works for all: https://goo.gl/FxaqmU #BetterChoices
- .@GovMalloyOffice I urge you to #VetoTheBadBudget that attacks workers & raises taxes on the poor. There are #BetterChoices than austerity
Thank you for your support. Together, we can defeat this anti-worker budget.
Your sister in solidarity,
Lori J. Pelletier, President
Connecticut AFL-CIO
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