Free Daily Headlines :

  • COVID-19
  • Vaccine Info
  • Money
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Justice
  • More
    • Environment
    • Economic Development
    • Gaming
    • Investigations
    • Social Services
    • TRANSPORTATION
  • Opinion
    • CT Viewpoints
    • CT Artpoints
DONATE
Reflecting Connecticut’s Reality.
    COVID-19
    Vaccine Info
    Money
    Politics
    Education
    Health
    Justice
    More
    Environment
    Economic Development
    Gaming
    Investigations
    Social Services
    TRANSPORTATION
    Opinion
    CT Viewpoints
    CT Artpoints

LET�S GET SOCIAL

Show your love for great stories and out standing journalism

Malloy signs, then promotes, newly tweaked budget

  • Money
  • by Mark Pazniokas and Keith M. Phaneuf
  • June 30, 2015
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman at the signing of the budget bills.

CTMIRROR.ORG

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman at the signing of the budget bills.

The rocky path to a fiscal plan for the next two years ended Tuesday with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signing the budget adopted June 3 in the closing minutes of the 2015 session — and tax rollbacks passed earlier Tuesday in special session to quell an outcry from business interests.

“Massachusetts doesn’t have a budget. Maine doesn’t have a budget. Illinois doesn’t have a budget. New Hampshire doesn’t have a budget,” Malloy said after signing the documents at a ceremony attended by the legislature’s top leaders and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman. “We got a budget.”

The budget includes tax increases that violate a pledge the Democratic governor made during last fall’s close re-election campaign, and its passage exposes Democratic legislators in swing districts to attacks as they seek re-election in 2016, a campaign that the GOP already is waging.

Malloy did not directly answer a question about how he can reconcile the budget he signed with his campaign pledge. Instead, he said the GOP offered no practical alternative.

The governor and Democratic legislative leaders, House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey of Hamden and Senate President Martin M. Looney of New Haven, portrayed the budget as a responsible effort to maintain core services while making a commitment to transportation investments and property-tax reform.

Republicans, they said, played no constructive role.

“There is a party out there that keeps telling everybody you can have everything you need — you can have transportation and education and everything else, you don’t have to pay for it,” Malloy said. “That’s hard. That’s hard to compete with.”

Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, who worked with the administration to win bipartisan support for a major criminal-justice reform bill, challenged the governor to directly address his failure to deliver on a campaign promise to avoid tax increases.

“Why won’t he just admit that he broke his pledge to the people?” Fasano said. “I hope that a year from now, when Connecticut will, without a doubt, be facing another deficit, the governor will have the courage to own up to the fact that this budget did nothing to change the structure of how our state taxes and spends.”

The revisions that won final legislative passage early Tuesday rolled back $178 million of the $1.5 billion worth of tax hikes built into the original two-year budget. The final spending plan for the biennium beginning Wednesday is $40.25 billion.

The non-partisan Office of Fiscal Analysis projects significant shortfalls in two years, leaving transportation advocates to worry that one of Malloy’s accomplishments — dedicating a half-point of the 6.35 percent sales to the special transportation fund — will collapse under the need for more general-government revenue.

“You can poo poo it or whatever you want to do and say that things could happen in the future,” Malloy said.

The governor insisted he would go before legislators again to secure the legal “lockbox” he says is necessary to protect the state’s new investment in transportation. He hinted it could come in a special session later this year.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signs the budget. From left, House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey, Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman.

CTMIRROR.ORG

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signs the budget. From left, House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey, Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman.

Malloy began the year talking about a constitutional amendment to ensure new funding sources for transportation couldn’t be diverted from that purpose in the future.

But by his State of the State Address on Jan. 7, Malloy was insisting on using the state’s transportation bonds to craft the lockbox.

The governor specifically threatened to veto any transportation funding plan if lawmakers didn’t also authorize Treasurer Denise L. Nappier to build a no-diversion pledge into future bond covenants — essentially the contracts between Connecticut and the investors who buy its transportation bonds.

What the governor got instead was a statutory provision in the budget that prohibits diversions, which any subsequent legislature can erase with a majority vote.

Republican legislative leaders jumped on the absence of a legally binding lockbox Monday.

Malloy said he still believes a constitutional amendment protecting the transportation revenue would be preferable.

“Last night’s step was the first step to getting to the constitutional and I believe that, relatively shortly, we’ll have a constitutional,” he said. “I believe it is absolutely what we need.”

The next regular General Assembly session doesn’t convene until February, but the governor added he might approach lawmakers about this “maybe sooner than later. … I am not done pushing for this.”

Sign up for CT Mirror's free daily news summary.

Free to Read. Not Free to Produce.

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit newsroom. 90% of our revenue comes from people like you. If you value our reporting please consider making a donation. You'll enjoy reading CT Mirror even more knowing you helped make it happen.

YES, I'LL DONATE TODAY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark Pazniokas is the Capitol Bureau Chief and a co-founder of CT Mirror. He is a frequent contributor to WNPR, a former state politics writer for The Hartford Courant and Journal Inquirer, and contributor for The New York Times.

Keith M. Phaneuf A winner of numerous journalism awards, Keith Phaneuf has been CT Mirror’s state finances reporter since it launched in 2010. The former State Capitol bureau chief for The Journal Inquirer of Manchester, Keith has spent most of 31 years as a reporter specializing in state government finances, analyzing such topics as income tax equity, waste in government and the complex funding systems behind Connecticut’s transportation and social services networks. A former contributing writer to The New York Times, Keith is a graduate of and a former journalism instructor at the University of Connecticut.

SEE WHAT READERS SAID

RELATED STORIES
Ned Lamont’s year in the shadow of COVID
by Mark Pazniokas

Ned Lamont has been the face, voice, and interpreter of the COVID crisis, mourning deaths, explaining setbacks and cautiously celebrating.

With billions in federal relief on the way to CT, legislators assert their role in deciding how to spend it
by Keith M. Phaneuf and Mark Pazniokas

With an unusual bill, state legislators are reminding Gov. Ned Lamont they have significant role in disbursing federal coronavirus relief.

Rep. Patricia Billie Miller wins vacant Senate seat
by Mark Pazniokas

Rep. Patricia Billie Miller, D-Stamford, won a special election to the state Senate.

CT hasn’t started collecting new payroll tax from state workers
by Keith M. Phaneuf

Connecticut established a new payroll tax surcharge on Jan. 1 but still isn't deducting it from state workers' paychecks.

Lamont’s budget offers another round of tax amnesty
by Keith M. Phaneuf

Gov. Ned Lamont’s proposal waives penalties and caps interest at 3% over each of the next two fiscal years.

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion The public health bill no one is talking about, but should be
by Brian Festa

On February 16,  the legislature's Public Health Committee conducted a public hearing on two bills, S.B. 568 and H.B. 6423, both of which would eliminate the religious exemption to mandatory vaccinations for Connecticut schoolchildren.  The hearing was capped at 24 hours, depriving nearly 1,500 members of the public who had registered for the hearing their opportunity to be heard.  The vast majority of those who did testify, and who submitted written testimony, opposed the bill.  The committee is expected to vote on the bill as early as  today. 

Opinion Students need more resources, fewer officers
by Tenille Bonilla

"School resource officer" is just a nice way to say cop. But what students really need is more resource and less officer.

Opinion The Board of Regents’ changes must not shortchange its students or faculty
by Carrie Andreoletti, PhD

As a university professor and a lifespan developmental psychologist, I tend to approach my work from a developmental perspective. This means I aim to foster a lifelong love of learning and to help others find a sense of meaning and purpose, as well as confidence in their ability to reach their goals. My approach to higher education is shaped by my desire to provide the best possible education for my students. This is why the recent Board of Regents’ proposed changes at the four state universities have me worried.

Opinion How to close schooling opportunity gaps created by the pandemic
by Carol Gale

We ask school district leaders to trust your public servants whose daily work life involves assessing student needs and planning or modifying instruction to meet those needs. Listen to their voices, as we have, and allocate precious resources on interventions that will offer increased opportunities for Hartford students to succeed.

Artwork Grand guidance
by Anne:Gogh

In a world of systemic oppression aimed towards those of darker skintones – representation matters. We are more than our equity elusive environments, more than numbers in a prison and much more than victims of societal dispositions. This piece depicts a melanated young man draped in a cape ascending high above multiple forms of oppression. […]

Artwork Shea
by Anthony Valentine

Shea is a story about race and social inequalities that plague America. It is a narrative that prompts the question, “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in new skin?”

Artwork The Declaration of Human Rights
by Andres Chaparro

Through my artwork I strive to create an example of ideas that reflect my desire to raise social consciousness, and cultural awareness. Jazz music is the catalyst to all my work, and plays a major influence in each piece of work.”

Artwork ‘A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever’
by Richard DiCarlo | Derby

During times like these it’s often fun to revisit something familiar and approach things with a different slant. I have been taking some Pop culture and Art masterpieces and applying the vintage 1960’s and 70’s classic figures (Fisher Price, little people) to the make an amusing pieces. Here is my homage to Fisher -Price, Yellow […]

Twitter Feed
A Twitter List by CTMirror

Engage

  • Reflections Tickets & Sponsorships
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Submit to Viewpoints
  • Submit to ArtPoints
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Commenting Guidelines
  • Legal Notices
  • Contact Us

About

  • About CT Mirror
  • Announcements
  • Board
  • Staff
  • Sponsors and Funders
  • Donors
  • Friends of CT Mirror
  • History
  • Financial
  • Policies
  • Strategic Plan

Opportunity

  • Advertising and Sponsorship
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Use of Photography
  • Work for Us

Go Deeper

  • Steady Habits Podcast
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Five Things

The Connecticut News Project, Inc. 1049 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. Phone: 860-218-6380

© Copyright 2021, The Connecticut News Project. All Rights Reserved. Website by Web Publisher PRO