Gov. Dannel P. Malloy unveiled a plan Wednesday that relies on one-time revenue sweeps, withholding $19 million in municipal aid, dozens of small agency cuts, and draining the state’s reserves to close the roughly $390 million gap in current state finances.
2017 State Budget
Posted inMoney, Politics
Malloy, CT lawmakers to begin closing $5B in red ink
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and legislative leaders get down this week to the daunting task of closing the largest state budget gap since the last recession — one that has grown enough over the last two weeks to leave all previous plans massively out of balance.
Posted inMoney
Hartford teeters as the state struggles for a budget
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy stood on a windswept lawn outside a branch library in Hartford’s North End for the second of five public events on his schedule Wednesday, a routinely busy day for a lame-duck governor whose to-do list includes stabilizing the state’s finances and saving its capital city from bankruptcy.
Posted inMoney, Politics
House speaker: Deficit too great to rule out income tax hike
While insisting he remains very sensitive to the economic risks posed by another state income tax increase, a House Democratic leader said Tuesday he would not rule out another hike — including one on wealthy households — given the massive deficits projected for state finances.
Posted inMoney, Politics
CT’s tax revenue plunge bottoms out at $1.5B
Updated at 3 p.m.
Analysts for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s adminstration and the legislature’s nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis downgraded anticipated revenues for the next two fiscal years by $1.46 billion — nearly $600 million next fiscal year and $865 million in 2018-19 — largely because of eroding income tax receipts.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Senate Dems call for open, televised CT budget talks
With Connecticut facing its worst budget crisis in six years, Senate Democrats proposed opening all budget talks to the news media and televising them on public access cable television.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Finance panel dangles tax relief — but can the state afford it?
As legislators learned state finances could run $4.7 billion in deficit over the next two fiscal years, one panel unanimously endorsed close to $50 million in small tax cuts by 2018 — and more gradual repeal of a $550 million tax on hospitals.
Posted inMoney, Politics
CT tax revenue in free fall, adding $1.1B in red ink for next 2 years
Plummeting state income tax collections reached their worst decline Thursday since the last recession, falling $450 million below anticipated levels for April — one-and-a-half times the free fall projected just one day ago.
Posted inMoney
Malloy seeks bipartisan summit to tackle eroding CT income tax receipts
Updated at 6:10 p.m.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy asked legislative leaders Wednesday to meet with him next week to plan a bipartisan response to state income tax receipts declining by “hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Posted inMoney
CT budget process collapses amid dissension
Updated at 3:55 p.m.
The General Assembly’s Appropriations Committee failed to adopt a $41 billion budget proposal Tuesday afternoon as Democrats were unable to hold together a paper-thin majority on the panel.
Posted inMoney, Politics
A divided legislature flubs a dress rehearsal on the budget
Connecticut saw a preview Tuesday of what a fiscal deadlock looks like in a closely divided General Assembly: A fragile Democratic majority unable to unite behind a spending plan, and a Republican minority unwilling to step into the void and share responsibility for a budget destined to be poison at the polls in 2018.
Posted inMoney, Politics
As deadline looms, panel pressing for budget vote Tuesday
After a day filled with intense, last-minute negotiations, Democrats on the General Assembly’s Appropriations Committee appeared poised late Monday to bring the expenditure portion of a new, two-year spending budget to a vote Tuesday.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Dramatically eroding CT income tax receipts complicate budget debate
Updated at 7:10 p.m.
New reports show dramatically eroding state income tax receipts that could expand the deficit in the next two-year budget by more than $500 million while depleting existing reserves. Although six more days remain before analysts complete their review of April income tax receipts, the new numbers also raise the prospect state government may have to borrow to balance the current budget.
Posted inMoney
It’s time to produce a budget but the parties are at loggerheads
As the legislature’s budget-writing panels approach their deadlines, partisan gridlock has some leaders questioning whether they might fail to recommend a complete budget.
Posted inMoney
Advocates for teachers, towns say voters oppose pension cost shift
The survey, commissioned by the Connecticut Education Association and the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, found 64 percent of voters would cast ballots against legislators who back such a plan.