Leaders insist their blueprint would close massive future deficits without tax hikes. To do that, though, the GOP minorities in the House and Senate would dilute the two big initiatives Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the Democratic majority launched last June: a 30-year investment in transportation and a plan to share sales tax receipts with cities and towns.
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Posted inMoney, Politics
GOP plan includes end to bargaining for state retirement benefits
Republican legislators offered a blueprint Monday to curb future state spending by, among other things, no longer guaranteeing worker retirement benefits by contract. The plan also would require several new concessions by state employees, restrict borrowing and overtime, and accelerate closure of the Connecticut Juvenile Training School.
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Appropriations budget may finally spark a spending cap debate
When it comes to state finances, the constitutional spending cap has been the elephant in the room for the past decade. But the leaders of the legislature’s Appropriations Committee took the first step Monday to force a debate on a broken budget mechanism that increasingly promotes fiscal maneuvering, hefty borrowing, secrecy, and forfeiture of federal dollars.
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Malloy decries budget gimmicks — but uses a few
Despite decrying the budget gimmicks of his Republican predecessors, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is employing some fiscal tricks himself, using $70 million in borrowing and other gimmicks to balance his latest spending plan.