Villager Staff Writer

HARTFORD -- State Republicans led by Rep. Lawrence F. Cafero Jr. of Norwalk and Sen. Leader John P. McKinney of Fairfield on Tuesday released a "no-tax increase" biennial budget whose bottom line is $1.5 billion less than the spending plan put forward by Democratic Gov. Dannel M. Malloy in February.

"Political pundits, blogosphere dwellers and skeptics have maintained for months that it would be impossible to produce a balanced, honest budget that fills the massive state deficit without huge tax increases," said Cafero, R-142, in a press statement. "Today, Republican lawmakers proved them wrong."

Lawmakers, he said, have a "clear choice" between a budget "littered with ever increasing taxes to support higher spending, or an austere path toward a leaner government that provides goods and services that we can actually afford."

McKinney, R-28, described the Republican proposal as "a blueprint for ending Connecticut's current fiscal crisis and helping to prevent a future crisis."

Cafero, House Republican leader, and McKinney, Senate Republican leader, presented the alternative state budget proposal at a midday press conference at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.

The Republicans presented the spending plan as an alternative to Malloy's proposed two-year, nearly $40-billion state budget, a mixture of tax increases and spending cuts, which the Democratic governor says will require shared sacrifice.

Republicans said their alternative budget will significantly reduce the size and cost of government while protecting the social safety net and preserving state aid to municipalities by focusing on core government functions, eliminating waste and creating efficiencies.

Consolidating 36 agencies into five would save $46.5 million, eliminating 1,380 duplicative managerial positions in the state employee workforce would save $250 million, eliminating 166 vacant positions would save $21.6 million, implementing a hard hiring freeze would save $31.4 million, and 834 layoffs another $116.6 million. Boosting Medicaid fraud detection would save an estimated $224 million. The remaining savings would come from elsewhere throughout the biennial budget, based upon a line-by-line review of the spending plan, according to Cafero.

"The remaining result is that we still employ 51,300 people, we expend over $7 billion for public health and human services per year, we expend over $4 billion per year for education, we do not reduce municipal aid a nickel. We do not raise taxes one nickel," Cafero told The Stamford Times. "We prove you can have a responsible and compassionate budget."

According to Republicans, the budget would impose no new taxes on businesses, individuals, employers, services or goods.

As with Malloy's budget, the Republican proposal assumes $2 billion in savings over two years through state employee union concessions.

State Sen. Toni Boucher, R-26, pitched the alternative budget against spending plans put forward in neighboring states.

"If states like New York and New Jersey can pass balanced budgets with no tax increases, then so can Connecticut," Boucher said.

State Rep. Gail Lavielle, R-143, said the alternative budget "turns a vicious financial circle into a positive opportunity to change the way the state of Connecticut does business."

"It's less about sacrifice than about creating for people, businesses, and towns an economic climate in which effort pays off and success and improvement are possible," she said in a statement. "Instead of spending more money on government and taxing more to cover it, this budget restructures state government for the long term, preserves essential services for those who need them most, protects families and small business owners from ever increasing taxes, and leaves funding for schools and towns intact."

Roy Occhiogrosso, Malloy's senior adviser, said the governor appreciated the time and effort Republicans put into the document and that they agreed that $2 billion in savings can be achieved with state employees.

"But with all due respect, this budget is not balance, it relies on fiscal gimmicks, hurts job growth, cuts important funding in education, shreds the safety net, and fundamentally undermines clean election," Occhiogrosso said.

"The Republicans' budget assumes more than $500 million in unidentified savings across state government. The Republicans have had more than two months since the governor proposed his budget to identify specific savings, but instead have chosen to assign an arbitrary figure to a line-item and call it a cut," Occhiogrosso said.