Posted on 04/21/2012 11:08:57 AM PDT by matt04
Faltering state income tax revenues left Gov. Dannel P. Malloy reporting his largest budget deficit to date on Friday.
And unless tax receipts reported this week by nonpartisan legislative analysts improve, Malloy's budget plan for next year -- including a state employee pension fund fix and increased education aid to towns -- could be out of balance now and headed for more than $500 million in red ink by 2013-14.
The governor's budget agency, the Office of Policy and Management, reported that the general fund in this year's $20.14 billion budget is $66.9 million in deficit. Malloy needs to finish $75 million in surplus this year to maintain the ongoing conversion of state finances to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, and the administration now faces a $142 million hole.
"The state is in the middle of the year's busiest two weeks for tax collection," OPM Secretary Benjamin Barnes said Friday, referring to the rush of income tax filings the state has been receiving in the days before and after the April 17 deadline. "While early receipts are below targets, it is too soon to draw any firm conclusions about our income tax results for the year."
Barnes also warned of an "emerging shortfall" in the Medicaid program that could involve more than $90 million in cost overruns.
But it's the income tax -- and particularly its most volatile component, that was threatening not only the current budget, but Malloy's plans for next year.
The $20.7 billion plan the governor offered in February for the fiscal year that starts July 1 was balanced -- but only for 12 months. According to the administration's own numbers, that plan would slip $424 million into deficit by 2013-14.
(Excerpt) Read more at ctmirror.org ...
Seems like a no brainer to me, but not for the socialist, tax-increasing scum that we have elected across this once great land.
When Weicker shoved that monster down the throat of the good people of CT, his rationale was that sales tax receipts lag during recessions, but the income tax keeps chugging along.
The movement against it, led by Tom Scott, was a definite forerunner to the modern Tea Party movement.
Yet it is stuffed to the rafters with Democrats, so they’ll continue to hobble along.
This dope just raised taxes, didn’t he?
Raise taxes, eliminate the death penalty, keep it up Connecticut.
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