Governor Partly Shuts Down Connecticut : Deficit: Weicker tries to pressure Legislature to pass income tax by halting non-essential services, laying off workers. Similar action taken in Maine.

In a move to pressure the Connecticut Legislature to adopt an income tax as part of the state’s new budget, Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. on Tuesday ordered a shutdown of non-essential government services that includes closing state parks and beaches, which are already crowded as the Independence Day weekend approaches.

The governor’s action was taken as the Connecticut Senate, wary of a possible voter backlash, rejected, 23 to 12, a House-approved budget bill that would impose a 4.75% income tax on wages to help plug a projected $1.8-billion deficit in the fiscal year that began Monday.

“In the absence of a budget . . . I have no choice but to restrict state activity to essential services,” Weicker said Tuesday in announcing his shutdown plan.

Under the plan, 7,000 employees--almost 15% of the 48,000-strong state work force--are to be furloughed immediately. They will be joined by an additional 13,000 workers today if Connecticut still lacks a budget acceptable to Weicker.

Weicker, a former maverick Republican senator who won the governorship last year as an independent, has vowed to veto any spending plan that does not contain a state income tax on individuals.

Connecticut became the second state in the nation to order a shutdown of non-essential services for lack of a budget. On Monday, Maine Gov. John R. McKernan Jr. idled more than 10,000 state workers--more than 70% of the work force--in a fiscal standoff with that state’s Legislature.

McKernan submitted a $3.2-billion biennial budget in January that called for $300 million in new taxes along with $600 million in spending cuts to close a $930-million deficit.

Besides Connecticut and Maine, at least seven other states, including California, entered the new fiscal year on Monday without a budget.

The states are all ones in which the national recession has hit hard, severely eroding state revenues and handing governors and legislators exceedingly painful political choices in drawing up new financial plans.

Connecticut’s partial shutdown does not apply to essential state services, including those provided by state police, prison guards, courts, state hospitals and mental health workers.

But state parks, forests and beaches would be closed for the busy Fourth of July weekend, along with motor vehicle offices, regulatory agencies, such as the departments of banking and insurance, and off-track betting parlors.

“The criteria that were established for agencies that would remain open are preservation of order, administration of justice and protection of health and property,” gubernatorial spokeswoman Avice Meehan said.

The 7,000-member Connecticut Employees Union Independent, which represents janitors and maintenance workers, planned to file suit in state Superior Court to block the shutdown.

“We can’t afford to have our members go one, two or three days without salary,” the union president, Steve Perruccio, said. “Our members live paycheck to paycheck.”

Weicker has twice vetoed proposed spending plans for the current fiscal year because they did not contain an income tax. The most recent instance, which occurred just last weekend, involved a “shocking display of ignoring reality” on the part of the Legislature, Weicker said.

Weicker maintains that only an income tax can solve the state’s budget problems; but, the last time the Legislature tried to impose one, public outrage forced the lawmakers to repeal it within weeks after it was enacted.

Connecticut is one of 10 states without a broad-based income tax.