Lowell P. Weicker, former Governor of Connecticut, 3-term U.S. Senator, U.S. Congressman, State Representative, and First Selectman of Greenwich, will make a rare public appearance to present his perspectives on Connecticut’s fiscal crisis at the June 17 annual meeting of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM).  

The CCM Annual Meeting will take place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and Conference Center in Cromwell, from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Weicker’s remarks -- to be delivered to an expected full house of Connecticut mayors, first selectmen and town/city managers from across the state --  is scheduled for 10:30 a.m.  The June 17 meeting will also include the election of CCM’s Officers and Board of Directors for FY 2010-11.  

Weicker’s landmark career includes service as First Selectman of Greenwich, State Representative, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator, and the 85th Governor of Connecticut. He gained national attention for his service on the Senate Watergate Committee. He also sought the Republican nomination for President in 1980.  Though a member of the Republican Party during his time in Congress, he later left the party and became one of the few independents to ever be elected as a state governor.    

In 1990 Weicker ran for Governor of Connecticut as a member of "A Connecticut Party" defeating Republican John Rowland and Democrat Bruce Morrison.    

As now, the biggest and most volatile issue facing Connecticut when Governor Weicker took office was the then-largest state budget deficit ever and the difficult policy choices about how to balance the budget. Shortly after his inauguration, Weicker became an advocate of a broad-based income tax coupled with a spending cap. The package passed the General Assembly – after a summer–long contentious debate -- and has been law in Connecticut ever since.    

For his courageous leadership during his first year as Governor, Weicker was honored with the Profiles in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation in 1992.    

Connecticut’s expected state budget for FY 2011-12 has a built in “fiscal hole” of between $3 billion and $4 billion – with that much in revenue increases and/or spending reductions needed to bring the state budget back into balance.    

Governor Weicker is President of the Board of Directors of Trust for America's Health, a Washington, DC-based non-profit, non-partisan health policy research organization.