Sen. Bob Duff said the budget plan is a "blueprint for the future" that required vision from lawmakers.
State Senate Democrats are recapping the 2015 legislative session during a press conference in Senate President Martin Looney's office.
State Sen. Bob Duff said the legislature tackled difficult issues, making a generational shift in its approach to funding transportation in particular, and helping veterans. He said the state hasn't simply created a two-year budget, but repeated that the plan is really a "blueprint for the future" that required vision from lawmakers.
"As Americans, we shouldn't accept that we have a second- or third-rate transportation system," Duff said. "How do we compete globally when you have that? If the federal government's not going to step to the plate on transportation, then it's up to the states to do that, and that's what we're trying to do here."
"We had a large number of significant successes," said State Sen. Martin Looney, highlighting the health care bill. "That was something that took a great deal of time and effort. ... We did a number of things on a bipartisan basis."
The Senate voted in favor on Wednesday night of a two-year, $40.3 billion Democratic budget that drew sharp criticism from several of the state's major employers for raising taxes. The package cleared the Democratic-controlled Senate on a bipartisan vote of 19 to 17.
It previously cleared the House of Representatives on a 70 to 73 vote earlier in the day.
The vote came about a half hour before the midnight adjournment on Wednesday.
Watch the press conference below courtesy of CT-N:
This report includes information from The Associated Press.
