One Connecticut lawmaker’s solution to trimming to the state’s projected deficit by about $28 million — slash the number of lawmakers by half.
Rep. Linda Schofield (D-Simsbury) has introduced legislation to cut the 36-member state Senate and 151 members of the House in half.
In addition, terms would be doubled for those who serve to four years from two, Schofield said.
Connecticut faces a projected fiscal deficit of $3.7 billion.
“Connecticut has more legislators than California — a state with 10 times more people than Connecticut,” Schofield said. “The state is facing an unprecedented financial situation and we need to reduce the size of our state government, which has just become too big – and the best place to start is with ourselves.”
Since state election campaigns are now publicly financed to the tune of about $27.3 million every two years, Schofield’s proposal would reduce that amount by 75 percent, saving taxpayers $20.5 million.
In addition, the reduction in the number of legislators would save on not only their salaries and benefits, but also their staff. Each senator has a full-time staff-person and every four representatives share a staff-person as well. Schofield estimates savings of roughly $7.5 million from the reduction in the payroll.
