As I have done a number of times over the last several months, I write to give you an update on the General Assembly’s most recent efforts to reduce the projected state budget deficit for the current fiscal year, which ends on June 30, 2009.
At the moment, the state is projecting a deficit for the current fiscal year of approximately $922 million. Just last week, the projected deficit stood at $320 million. This revised projection will make our already difficult job that much harder.
As you will recall, the General Assembly has met twice in the last six months to act to reduce the projected deficit. We met in special session in November to reduce the deficit by $71.8 million, and we met again on January 14, 2009 to reduce the deficit by an additional $120 million. In the meantime, the Governor has used her authority to reduce spending by making $191 million in additional budget cuts.
The action we took on the 14th was another step in the right direction, but I was disappointed that we did not do more to address a problem that every legislator knows will not get better and may very well worsen. I was also alarmed to see the introduction of new spending into the bill that was supposed to be about lessening our deficit.
We met on the 14th to consider the Governor’s proposal to cut the projected deficit by $185.6 million. By the end of the day, the bill that we were presented with by the majority Democrats to vote on cut the deficit by $120 million. I believe we should have reduced the deficit by the larger number proposed by the Governor.
Republicans offered a number of amendments intended to help us address the current fiscal crisis. These included a proposal to implement a furlough plan that would have required all non-classified state employees to take one unpaid day off in January and two days off per month from February through June. This would have saved the state an additional $17.4 million. We also offered an amendment that would have cut legislators’ pay by ten percent. We believe that legislators need to lead by example; if we are going to ask state employees and others to cut back, legislators should lead the charge by doing the same. We also proposed to increase the Governor’s authority to cut spending without legislative approval from three percent to six percent for any fund and from five percent to ten percent of total appropriations. I was disappointed that these amendments were all defeated on largely party-line votes. However, I am hopeful that the majority Democrats will embrace some if not all of these ideas and incorporate them into future deficit cutting plans.
My biggest disappointment with the bill we voted on last week, and the reason that all Republicans voted against it, is that it introduced new spending that we are not required by law to make. The bill included $274,000 in new spending to fund part of a healthcare trust established by a private company that provides janitorial services to the state. We were told that the amount of money being contributed by the employer was no longer sufficient to pay for its employees’ healthcare. We had a number of concerns with this provision. To begin with, this was included in the bill at the last minute, which gave us no time to learn more about who the employer is and exactly how the money would be used. In addition, we should not be increasing spending where doing so is not required by law or necessary for some other most compelling reason. Republicans voted against the final bill to highlight these important concerns.
Unfortunately, this will not be the last time you hear from me on the issue of deficit mitigation, as we have more work do in order to fully solve this problem. I would welcome any ideas you may have for how we can address our budget problems. Also, I welcome the opportunity to discuss any other issue with you and encourage you to contact my legislative office in Hartford at 860-240-8800 or by e-mailing me at sam.caligiuri@cga.ct.gov.
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