Coalition Urges a Better Choice - Quality Services and Fair Taxation

More than 1,000 union and community activists with Better Choices for Connecticut gathered at the State Capitol on March 25 to urge the Governor and Legislature to stop budget cuts, enact fair taxes and help Connecticut overcome the economic crisis.

Rally emcee, Shawn Lang of the CT AIDS Resource Coalition said “if these cuts go through, more and more Connecticut residents will fall through a safety net already rife with holes.”

Lindsey Matthews, whose son George lives at a group home for people with developmental disabilities, thanked his 1199 union care-givers. “The people who help feed, bathe and clothe him every day do it because I can’t be there. I can’t imagine what life would be like for our family without this critical service and we’re just one family out of thousands.”

The Better Choices plan includes raising income taxes on the state’s wealthiest residents making over $200,000 per year, as well as closing corporate tax loopholes. Governor Jodi Rell has proposed a budget based almost entirely on cuts to services and layoffs of state workers. Nobel Prize economists say that reducing public spending in an economic crisis, when services are needed the most, would send the economy into a further downward spiral. Some estimate that Rell’s budget could cost the state from 30,000 to 50,000 jobs.

Peoples Center signs read: No Cuts - No Layoffs - TAX the RICH

More information at: www.betterchoicesforCT.org.