Party of one? GOP balks at Rell's call for tax hikes

BYLINE: Brian Lockhart, The Stamford Advocate, Conn.

Mar. 5--When he assumed the role of House Minority Leader in November, state Rep. Lawrence Cafero of Norwalk said one of his priorities was to improve the state GOP's public image.

"We are the party of the Jodi Rells," Cafero had said in an interview, referring to the popular Republican governor who won a landslide victory amid Democratic victories around the state and the nation. "We're moderate, common-sense Republicans."

Cafero and his fellow leaders say they are still the party of Rell -- minus her tax increases and spending hikes.

It has been a month since Rell unveiled a budget that would pump $3.4 billion into education over five years and boost the income tax and break her party's treasured state spending cap to do it.

In separate interviews Friday, Cafero; Senate Minority Leader Louis DeLuca, R-Woodbury; and Senate Minority Leader Pro Tempore John McKinney, R-Fairfield, were united in opposition to the governor's proposal.

"To a person, everyone in my caucus has voiced serious concerns with raising the income tax and going through the cap," Cafero said.

With Democratic leaders taking shots at the income tax hike and proposed cuts in other areas, Rell has been unable to turn to her own party for support. Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele of Stamford has been the only member of the GOP to publicly praise the proposal and encourage legislators to embrace it.

"A call for taxes is never particularly welcome," said Christopher Cooper, the governor's spokesman. "She recognized there would be people in her own party that would find it more difficult to endorse certain parts of the proposal."

Cooper said the governor also proposed abolishing the car tax and phasing out the estate tax. And he said she continues to craft legislation with her budget staff to tie the increases in education dollars to municipal property tax relief.

"I can tell you it's an absolute priority," he said. "We think when the governor makes her case, and we have the language. People will understand the relationship between education and (tax relief)."

Cafero said he is "proud" of Rell's bold moves on education but says the House Republicans will not support a tax increase. He said more than a month will elapse before Republicans release an alternative budget.

"The governor's intentions are honorable. She wants to improve education," DeLuca said. "Personally, I don't believe the money proposed will improve education (or) be reflected in property tax reductions."

DeLuca said Senate Republicans are considering alternatives to raising taxes and going over the budget cap.

"When we say 'alternatives,' that doesn't mean we're going to spend the amount of money on education the governor's proposing," DeLuca said.

One Republican proposal might be to amend the education cost-sharing formula, which the state uses to divide funds among cities and towns, beyond what Rell is proposing.

McKinney said his Senate colleagues are considering a reduction in proposed new education funding or phasing in the aid over a longer period. McKinney said he agrees with Rell's call for stricter accountability in return for the education dollars.

"We are meeting informally as a caucus, sitting down, going over different parts of the budget, seeing what ideas are different from the governor's and Democrats," he said.

In an interview after Rell's Feb. 7 budget address, Cafero said party leaders were not given the opportunity to talk the governor out of proposing an income tax hike. Cafero said he has since met with Rell to share his views on the budget. DeLuca said he has not had such a meeting because they have nothing to discuss yet.

"If she was coming to me, I'd say, 'What alternatives you got?' " DeLuca said. "We don't have any yet."

McKinney said Rell is different from her predecessor, Republican John Rowland, who would "call a number of us in his office, and there were pretty strong words about whether I would support a budget."

"This governor doesn't operate that way," McKinney said.

Cooper said Rell is trying to sell her budget message to the public, including the education and business communities, through interviews with the media and appearances at state schools and colleges.

"She's laying the groundwork for getting support lined up," Cooper said. "Our idea was . . . to develop a campaign of support that would be sustainable and keep the drumbeat going over the course of the session."

McKinney and Cafero said regardless of Rell's spending proposal, they still want voters to associate the governor with the Republican Party.

"She's still a bright spot," McKinney said. "I'm still proud to call her my governor."

Cafero said state residents agree with the Republicans. In a recent Quinnipiac University poll, 72 percent of Rell's constituents approved of the job she is doing, but 56 percent opposed raising the income tax.

"Jodi is the kind of Connecticut Republican I hope people recognize," Cafero said. "(There is) one aspect of this particular budget I'm opposed to. Does that mean I want to disassociate myself from Jodi Rell? Absolutely not."

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