State Senate President Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, commended the university for taking back the pay hikes at a time when the school is dealing with a $40 million deficit and a roughly 30 percent tuition hike for students. “At a time when hundreds of people are losing their jobs in the executive and judicial branches and budget cuts system-wide are severely hurting government services for the needy, to give well-paid senior staff members at UConn big raises defies logic,” House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, said in an earlier interview.