The legislative cooperation that produced last October’s bipartisan state budget deal could face its toughest test starting next week as legislative leaders begin trying to close a deficit and find more funds for health care programs and municipal aid.
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Posted inMoney
CT income tax receipts surging, but most can’t be used to balance budget
State income tax receipts are projected to surge by $900 million in a report due next week. But because of new spending controls in the state budget, legislators can’t use the bulk of that to mitigate a $224 million deficit.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Legislature headed for a holiday session to fix social services program
With partisan feuding providing the final push Thursday, the state legislature now will come into session between between Christmas and New Year’s Day to reverse an unpopular cut to a social services program for poor seniors and the disabled.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Malloy offers tough medicine for deficit: taxes, spending cuts
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy released an array of options to rebalance the state budget Wednesday that include raising the sales tax rate as high as 6.9 percent, boosting other taxes, cutting municipal aid by $50 million and reducing health care, social services, and other programs.
Posted inCities & Towns, Money, Politics, Transportation
CT transportation system at risk of dramatic contraction
Connecticut’s cash-starved transportation program would need to scrap some rail services, drive up fares, suspend 40 percent of planned capital projects and defer major highway rebuilds like the Hartford Viaduct, to remain solvent over the next five years, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration has warned Wall Street.
Posted inMoney
Lengthy CT budget debate leaves capital program low on cash
Connecticut’s long-running battle to adopt a new state budget has left the capital program used to build schools, roads and bridges low on cash.
Posted inMoney, Politics
CT budget deficit crosses emergency action threshold
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy intensified pressure on the legislature Monday to come into special session to repair the new state budget, projecting a $203 million deficit that exceeds a key risk threshold.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Malloy dishes out legislature’s big mandated cuts
Connecticut got a clearer picture of the painful cuts in the new state budget Friday when Gov. Dannel P. Malloy imposed more than $880 million in spending cuts mandated by the General Assembly.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
House gives final approval to CT budget fix
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly gave final approval Wednesday to a measure fixing technical flaws with the hospital tax, a renters’ rebate program and other aspects of the new state budget.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Senate passes hospital tax fix
The Senate voted unanimously Tuesday to fix a series of technical issues in the new state budget, including a flaw with the new hospital provider tax increase.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Newly adopted CT budget already showing red ink
Less than three weeks after legislators approved the new state budget, eroding revenues have opened deficits topping $175 million this fiscal year and nearing $150 million in 2018-19.
Posted inMoney
Economist Gioia: ‘Historic’ state budget will boost business confidence
A vice president and economist with the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, Peter Gioia has spent the past 18 years with the state’s chief business lobby, managing its research department and tracking Connecticut’s economy through a quarterly survey. In this week’s Sunday Conversation he talks about the recently approved, bipartisan state budget; the long struggle to adopt it, and its impact on Connecticut’s business community.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Big deficits two years from now could undercut tax cut promises
While the new state budget promises an array of tax cuts two and three years from now, it also leaves the next governor and legislature to close a $4.6 billion projected shortfall — far larger than the deficit lawmakers addressed in the current plan.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Malloy rejects hospital tax plan but signs most of CT budget into law
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy used his line-item veto to reject a new taxing arrangement on hospitals, but signed into law the bulk of a new, two-year state budget negotiated without direct input from his administration.
Posted inMoney
CT towns to feel credit crunch even with a new state budget
Despite legislative approval of a bipartisan state budget, a major Wall Street credit rating agency warned Friday municipalities still will struggle to get affordable credit.