Republican and Democratic legislative leaders in Connecticut say they are expecting their members to vote on a bipartisan budget agreement this week. But there remains uncertainty about the details of what lawmakers will actually be voting on.
That uncertainty was highlighted by Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy. On Friday he said he had yet to see a written document to determine whether the budget is balanced. Malloy was skeptical that the legislative leaders had been able to close the state’s projected $3.5 billion budget deficit without resorting to gimmicks.
“We can’t repeat the mistakes of the past that got us here to begin with. We can’t rely on gimmicks that only make our problems worse in the coming years.”
Democratic Senate President Martin Looney said the leaders spent the weekend fleshing out the details of the tentative bipartisan agreement they reached last week. Some details revealed so far include a new provision to eliminate the property tax on cars, teachers paying one percent more of their salaries for their pensions, and the redirecting of $175 million from the state’s clean energy fund. There’s also an increase in the cigarette tax and a reduction in the earned income tax credit for the working poor. And UConn is cut by $65 million each year of the two-year budget.
