Republican Budget Plan Closes 2017 Deficit of $937.5 Million
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I’m writing to provide an update from the General Assembly, and I’ll start with a status report on the topic you hear about most often: our state budget.
The current fiscal year ends June 30th, and you might recall that in late March the legislature approved a plan to ensure the state wouldn’t finish the year with a $220 million deficit. It was the second such “deficit mitigation” plan applied to the budget, which also saw Gov. Malloy make his own cuts to the extent allowable by state law.
Last week, we received news that wasn’t entirely unexpected: tax receipts are coming in lower than projected, ripping a $140 million hole in the budget.
Already, the fiscal year that begins July 1 is $930 million in deficit. The Democrats in the legislature’s Appropriations Committee approved a plan to reduce some of that deficit by cutting education money the state provides to local school districts. Gov. Malloy then proposed deeper cuts. I’m opposed to those plans—we can’t shift the state’s problems to students and local taxpayers. I’ve advocated for structural budget changes to break this perpetual fiscal crisis.
Today, I stood with House and Senate Republicans in not only offering a plan to balance next fiscal year’s budget, but to also issue a fiscal framework to break us out of this deficit cycle. Click the image below to see our plan:
In other legislative news, I recently supported:
In other legislative news, I recently supported:
- Two bills aimed at generating interest in careers in manufacturing