May 19, 2017

A Statement on The Current Status of The State Budget:

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As you may have heard, a revised no-tax-increase budget plan was released this week in response to the lack of state revenue collected in April. After taxes had been collected, state earnings were significantly lower than what had initially been projected. This created a newly projected deficit north of $5 billion for the upcoming biennium. Consequently, some adjustments had to be made to the House Republican budget blueprint.

The important details of this budget are as follows:

Retains municipal aid to New Milford at the current levels
Stricter bond cap, limiting the amount of debt accrued on the state credit card
Further streamlines government agencies for efficiency
Education funding is increased to municipalities
No tax increases
No tolls

The larger deficit number required the reallocation of funds and minor tweaks to balance. Compared to the other proposals on the table, this is the only viable path to economic recovery.

The governor’s proposal spends $313 million more than the one we have presented and attempts to zero out any state aid to New Milford, which is unacceptable. Further, the plan I support continues to reject the governor’s idea of municipalities assuming the teachers’ retirement pension fund.

Legislative Democrats are leaning on gambling and legalizing marijuana to close the growing deficit. While I am open to a discussion on the merit of either, it is clear that depending on those two entities for revenue is not sustainable. It should also be noted that the House Republican plan spends $700 million less than the Democrats’.

For complete details on our proposal, please click here.