Legislature takes one last swipe at deficit, House bill fills $153 million out of $968 million hole
By Keith M. Phaneuf
Journal Inquirer
Published: Saturday, May 23, 2009 12:51 AM EDT
HARTFORD — The state House of Representatives approved a fourth bill Friday aimed at reducing — but far from eliminating — a much larger state budget deficit for this fiscal year.
But the measure, which chopped this fiscal year’s $968 million shortfall to $815 million, wasn’t approved until majority Democrats blocked a Republican effort to empty a controversial $1.7 million account top lawmakers use to fund pet projects in key Democrats’ home districts.
The Democrat-controlled House voted 96-34, largely along party lines, to approve the bill, which now heads to the Senate, where Democrats also control two-thirds of the seats,
And with less than six weeks left until the fiscal year ends on June 30, lawmakers conceded Friday that they won’t have eliminated the entire deficit by then. That means state government either must borrow funds, or spend most of its $1.38 billion emergency reserve, commonly known as the Rainy Day fund, to cover the gap caused largely by shrinking tax revenues and a slumping economy.
But since both the Democratic legislative leaders and Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell have said they want to use all or most of the Rainy Day Fund to help reduce much larger projected deficits for the next two fiscal years — and thereby avoid or limit the amount of tax hikes needed — the likelihood of deficit borrowing grew considerably Friday.
“I think we’re trying to close the deficit where we can,” Rep. John C. Geragosian, D-New Britain, co-chairman of the Appropriations Committee, told Capitol reporters Friday.
But with the state’s economy mired in recession, and with further deficits looming, the effort to balance this year’s books has been a growing source of partisan tension.
Specifically, Rell has charged Democrats with being too reluctant to cut programs and thereby spending. Even though Friday’s bill was the fourth deficit-mitigation measure raised this year — and likely will be approved in the Senate and signed into law like the other three — it involves raiding one-time sources of state money to retain ongoing programs than it does actually cutting services.
The latest measure raids $110 million in unused funds from various off-budget accounts and transfers another $18.6 million in unspent money from within the General Fund. Only about $22.9 million in spending cuts was included in the bill, which trims miscellaneous line items across numerous agencies and dozens of accounts.
House Republicans tried to apply another $3.7 million to the deficit by canceling the controversial “contingency funds” built into this year’s budget,
Specifically, this involves $6 million originally reserved to be spent at the discretion of Rell, and of the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate. The Republican governor has refused to spend her $2 million this year. The House Democrats’ $2 million share is expended.
The amendment proposed Friday by House Republicans would have dumped Rell’s $2 million and the $1.7 million remaining under control of the Senate Democratic Caucus onto the deficit problem.
Rell’s will get there anyway, provided it remains unspent when the fiscal year ends on June 30. But House Democrats preserved the contingency money, sometimes called “slush funds” by critics, for their Senate Democratic colleagues, rejecting the Republican amendment in a vote largely along party lines.
House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero, R-Norwalk, questioned why Democrats wouldn’t forfeit the money, arguing it can’t be spent responsibly in less than six weeks, since there is insufficient time to research potential projects that would receive funding.
Rep. Themis Klarides, R-Derby, said the playing fields and park gazebos these funds normally provide for Democratic lawmakers, “are certainly not essential right now. Money like this can go to a better use.”
Senate Democratic Caucus spokesman Derek Slap said the caucus expects to leave a significant amount of its contingency funds unspent when the fiscal year ends, adding there was no need for the House Republican amendment.
Copyright © 2009 – Journal Inquirer
