Auriemma offers to forego pay in education budget battle

STORRS, Conn. – Hall of Fame basketball coach Geno Auriemma has weighed into Connecticut’s budget battle, offering to go unpaid next year in response to criticism over high salaries at UConn.

Connecticut still has no state budget, more than two months into the fiscal year, and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a Democrat, has vowed to veto a Republican-backed budget passed by the legislature, in part because it contains large cuts to UConn.

Auriemma, who has coached the school’s women’s basketball teams to 11 national titles, tells the Hartford Courant (http://cour.at/2fF83Rn ) he worries education cuts will mean his grandchildren won’t be able to go to an affordable state university.

Auriemma is slated to make more than $2 million next year. He offered to forgo his pay after reading comments from a lawmaker who justified cuts by saying that a lot of people at UConn make a lot of money.