Weicker Trying to Corner $1 Billion in New Taxes; Budget Eludes Connecticut Lawmakers at Loggerheads With Governor Over Deficit Solution
Lowell P. Weicker Jr., the beleaguered Independent governor of this politically tormented state, received an unusual telephone call early last week.</br></br>"I understand your pain," Weicker recalled New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo (D) saying about Connecticut's raucous battle over starting an income tax. "So I have decided to offer you political asylum in the state of New York."</br></br>Coming from the liberal Cuomo, who has just endured his own humiliating, four-month fiscal war with a hostile legislature, the proposal provided a rare comic moment for Weicker. Already this month, he has rejected two budgets, shut down much of the state over the extended Fourth of July weekend and threatened to veto any measure that does not raise at least $1 billion in new taxes.</br></br>"You haven't really lived until you try to close state parks on a national holiday," Weicker said in an interview, wincing. "Nobody ever told me this job would be easy, and nobody lied," he added, with uncharacteristic subtlety.</br></br>As the state passed through its second week without a budget - the first time that has happened here in more than 100 years - Connecticut seems on the verge of political chaos. Weicker's vigorous campaign for an income tax to close a $2.7 billion budget deficit in the nation's wealthiest state has smashed into unswerving opposition from a General Assembly unwilling to institute a new tax during a withering recession.