Malloy offers tough medicine for deficit: taxes, spending cuts

From CT Mirror

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.

These budget-balancing options, collectively, would boost revenue and reduce spending by more than $302 million this fiscal year — more than enough to counter the $208 million deficit projected for the current fiscal year.

They also could — depending on which ideas lawmakers might accept — position Connecticut to begin to rebuild its depleted emergency budget reserve starting next fiscal year.

But given that legislative leaders have expressed reluctance to make any adjustments to the new budget they crafted beyond reversing cuts to the Medicare Savings Program, it was unclear whether any of Malloy’s deficit-mitigation options had much of a future.

Under state law, the governor is compelled to craft a deficit-mitigation plan whenever the General Fund is projected to run more than 1 percent in the red. In the context of the current fiscal year, that means any shortfall greater than $187 million.

See full article from CT Mirror online.