Rep. O’Neill’s Website Seeks Citizen Input on Competing State Budgets

With the state budget debate expected to linger on until mid-summer without agreement on a new tax and spending plan, Representative O’Neill is urging his 69th Assembly District constituents to weigh in on competing budget proposals and other issues by responding to his new online survey, which can be found on this website.
“The contrast between the budgets offered by legislative Republicans and Democrats at the General; Assembly could not be more stark,” said Representative O’Neill, R-69th District. “The Democrat proposal would hike taxes by as much as $3.3 billion while the Republican plan would not involve a tax increase. The way this issue is resolved will have a direct bearing on Connecticut’s economic future, business growth, job creation, and our competitive position with respect to other states in the northeast region. For that reason, your opinions on this issue are very important to me.”

“Other issues such as relief from unfunded state mandates on municipalities, which require towns to provide certain services and programs but do not include state funding to defray the costs to towns of providing them, are almost certain to come up again during the 2010 legislative session,” Representative O’Neill said. “Unfunded mandates have been a particularly onerous burden on our towns and local property taxpayers because of the recession and the revenue losses it has inflicted on our communities.”

“Your responses to my survey questions will help guide my votes on these and other issues. The survey only takes a minute or two to complete. I’d like to encourage as many Southbury, Bridgewater, Roxbury and Washington voters as possible to respond to it,” Representative O’Neill said.