HARTFORD - Lawmakers are now digging into the budget, an attempt they said to rework Governor Dannel Malloy's painful cuts to areas like social services.
Lawmakers say everything is on the table and that includes state employee furloughs.
Senator Beth Bye is Co-Chair of the Appropriations Committee and said they are trying to work with Malloy to mitigate some of the cuts they are most concerned over.
She said he acted within his authority when he called for more than $100 million dollars in cuts, after concerns that Wall Street’s volatility brought in lower than predicted returns.
Bye said the Appropriations Committee has to look at everything, including state employee furloughs.
"There just can't be any sacred cows,” she said. "It could include anything. Everything is on the table. So, obviously employees are a big part of our budget. That's an executive branch function but as we're looking at it we're suggesting everything."
Republicans are also responding, continuing to call for a special session to address the latest budget woes.
Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano said in part,
"...I appreciate senator bye`s openness to ideas that many democrats have rejected in the past. All of these ideas absolutely should be explored in a special session..."
