ANTICIPATED CUTS TO STATE SPENDING ESSENTIAL SAYS STRUGGLING SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

ANTICIPATED CUTS TO STATE SPENDING ESSENTIAL SAYS STRUGGLING SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

ANTICIPATED
CUTS TO STATE SPENDING ESSENTIAL SAYS STRUGGLING SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

 

HARTFORD
(February 2, 2016): The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) has
been waiting for strong governance from Hartford for years. As information
about Governor Malloy’s much anticipated State of the State Address begins to
leak out, the organization is hopeful that 2016 will finally be the year of
substantial reform and budget cuts that will allow for the state’s financial
situation to stabilize, creating room for economic improvement for everyone in
Connecticut. 

 

“If
I had a dollar for every time a small business owner has told me over the last
several years that Connecticut has a spending problem, not a revenue problem, I
would be able to close the budget gap personally,” said NFIB Connecticut state
director, Andrew Markowski. “In all seriousness, it’s unfortunate that it has
taken this dire of an economic situation to motivate lawmakers to act, but
we’re hopeful that tomorrow the Governor will lay the framework for fiscal
reform that will begin to stabilize state finances and give small business
owners some level of predictability they’ve been craving.”

 

Reports
began to surface that in addition to fulfilling his promise not to propose any
new taxes, Governor Malloy intends to call for a 5.75 percent budget cut for
state agencies this year followed by another 9 percent in 2018 discretionary
spending. Small business in Connecticut was relieved to learn the news and
hopeful for the first time in recent memory that the state will begin to
balance their books the same way small businesses have to each year. 

 

“The
time has come for state government to operate a lot more like a small business.
Mom and Pop stores cannot just keep spending when they hit a rough patch, they
must cut back. The days of magically producing more revenue must be behind us
in order to keep more businesses from leaving the state, like GE and others
have recently. Legislators need to follow the Governor’s lead and not impede
the budget process in order to attain economic stability,” concluded
Markowski.