Connecticut Democrats’ Budget Crisis Leads To Cuts For Veterans

With Connecticut Democrats – led by Failed Governor Dan Malloy and his chief enablers Nancy Wyman and Kevin Lembo – failing to enact a budget on time, Connecticut’s veterans and military personnel are now paying the price. Without a budget, due to lack of leadership, the state has now stopped paying stipends for Honor Guard details at funerals and other military ceremonies, leaving the American Legion and other groups to pick up the cost. But while stipends for Connecticut’s Honor Guard are cut, the Malloy administration has not altered its plans for a $1 million bus expansion announced last week. With no end in sight for the state’s budget crisis, Malloy, Wyman and Lembo seem unfazed by the toll their failures are taking on veterans.
 
NBC Connecticut reports:

“As of July 1, the state stopped paying a stipend to the Honor Guard detail that carries out the rifle salute. The state currently does not have a budget, and the executive order the Governor signed did not include funding for the Honor Guard, according to Chris McClure, a spokesperson for Governor Dannel Malloy…

Members of the Honor Guard detail that provide the three-volley salute got a stipend of $50-per-person, per day. McClure said that doesn’t necessarily cover the entire cost of the rifle volley, since the detail does about 3,500 funerals a year, statewide.

Once the state budget is in place, the stipend could be restored, according to McClure…

‘They can’t get the honor they deserve. So our Posts are trying to pick up some of the slack on this,’  said Ed DeGumbia, the state department commander of the American Legion.”