Caligiuri on budget deficit

State Senator Sam Caligiuri wants to cut spending, not increase taxes, to address the burgeoning state budget deficit.

Excerpted from a press release on Sam Caligiuri's state webpage:

I suspect that the debate about the state budget over the next several months will come down to whether people believe that we have too little revenue or too much spending. In my view, we have too much spending given what we can reasonably expect to be a reliable source of state revenue. Accordingly, the answer to our budget problems will be to cut spending not raise taxes. To raise taxes would ignore the fundamental cause of the problem and actually worsen the crisis.

I want to emphasize that most of the programs and services that state government provides are worthwhile and important. I do not want to focus on budget cuts rather than tax increases because I do not see the value in what state government does for people. But the problem is more basic than that. However noble these programs are, we are simply spending more than we can afford to as a state right now. If we raise taxes to pay for more spending, I believe that we will further weaken our economy, which in turn will lower the amount of revenue the state can expect to receive, and we will find ourselves in a vicious cycle of budget deficits that will be very difficult to pull out of.

Tim White