20 August 2009

SAR: Budget Woes Across CT

State Budget Impasse Affecting Emergency Chopper

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - The program director for the Life Star emergency medical helicopters says if Connecticut's budget impasse continues, the program could be scaled back and one of its two helicopters eliminated.

Dr. Kenneth Robinson says Life Star, which is operated by Hartford Hospital and serves hospitals across Connecticut, has not received about four months worth of subsidy payments from the state, totaling about $464,000.

The hospital is currently covering the gap.

The $7.5 million Life Star program typically receives about $1.4 million a year from the state. Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who has been running the state by executive order because there isn't a budget in place, did not fund Life Star for July and August.

Robinson says the state also didn't make payments for May or June.

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