Connecticut to Cut Funding for 21 Gun Salutes at Veteran Funerals – Too Costly

Veterans are furious over a proposed state budget cut that will eliminate the firing detail at veteran funerals.

The Connecticut state military said funding for the gun salutes will run out around April.

Meanwhile Connecticut state university and colleges, along with Hartford and New Haven, have declared themselves sanctuary cities. And state employees were given fat raises at the end of December.

Reader Mark had this to say:

“Since our budget is so bad, they are considering not giving soldiers who are having funerals the 21 gun salute anymore. Keep in mind that Connecticut has stated they will fight Trump on immigration issues. They have declared the city of New Haven a sanctuary city. I find it funny they have money to give to illegals but not to give to soldiers to have a proper and decent burial and celebration of their service.

Kevin Rennie at The Courant reported:

Connecticut veterans up in arms over cut in funeral honors

The mask on the Malloy administration has slipped again. What an ugly face it revealed. How could it be otherwise when Gov. Dannel P. Malloy whacked $469,533 out of the state budget for Connecticut Honor Guard members to attend military funerals.

The nasty cut would reduce the honor guard unit to three members from the current five. The reduction was made from a $40 billion, two-year state budget. Everett Shepard, an official with the Connecticut chapter of the American Legion, told FoxCT that the budget cuts “would make it impossible for the remaining honor guard to perform a rifle salute” at military funerals.

Malloy has more than $33 million in state benefits for retailer Bass Pro Shops to sell guns in Bridgeport, but not enough to honor dead veterans with a traditional military salute at their funerals. The second-term Democrat managed to find tens of millions of dollars in public funds in corporate welfare in the run-up to last November’s election. Less than half a million for the men and women who defended freedom around the world? Send a card.

At a press conference earlier this month, Malloy said of the cuts he has made, “We have been surgical in the decisions we have had to make. Some of those are tough decisions.” That’s odd. Only three months ago, at 4:32 p.m. on the day before Christmas Eve, Malloy’s administration announced pay raises of as much as 12 percent for state commissioners and his top aides.

The governor’s budget chief, Ben Barnes, who struggled to defend the Christmas raises when they were announced, saw his salary increase from $187,000 to $210,000 a year. He’s the official who declared after November’s election that Connecticut is in a “permanent fiscal crisis.” The Malloy-Barnes budget would rather see the burden of that continuing crisis be borne by fallen veterans than the selfish circle around the governor.

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Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

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