SMALL BUSINESS TO COMMISSION: CONCISE LANGUAGE THE ONLY OPTION
SMALL BUSINESS TO COMMISSION: CONCISE LANGUAGE THE ONLY OPTION
HARTFORD (October 5, 2016): The first of five spending cap commission meetings was held today in in the legislative office building where representatives from the state’s largest small business advocacy group, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) testified regarding the importance of ensuring that the spending cap is inclusive of the most significant expenditures in the state budget in order to ensure transparency.
“There is no doubt that this Commission has been tasked with a difficult assignment, however, it is vital that the legislature receives a recommendation to incorporate reasonable language that will be understood by lawmakers for years to come,” according to NFIB Connecticut state director, Andrew Markowski. “Utilizing clear definitions of key budgetary expenditure terms will ensure transparency and predictability as well as guarantee that spending is capped at the state level in a way that voters always intended it be. The days of playing semantics with our revenue and spending must be put behind us so that the small business community has the necessary assurances that future revenue will not be squandered.”
Small business has long been advocating for a clarification of spending cap language since its implementation over 25 years ago. Markowski was joined today at the hearing by the chair of NFIB Connecticut’s leadership committee, Kevin Maloney. Kevin is also the owner of Northeast Express Transportation Inc. in Windsor Locks.
“The trusting voters of Connecticut approved a state income tax in 1992 under the misguided impression that lawmakers would impose a cap that would preclude any runaway spending. Since then we have watched as several administrations and countless legislative sessions have taken advantage of the goodwill of their constituents while they played games and found ways to get around the cap,” said Maloney. “As a matter of fact, since 1992, our state’s spending has exceeded the average growth of personal income by 1.66%. If I ran my business that way I would be bankrupt and my employees would be out of jobs.”
