Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy is urging state lawmakers to deal with the state’s looming budget deficit when they meet for a special session after Christmas next week.
Connecticut lawmakers petitioned for the special session. They say they want to fix the state’s Medicare Savings Program, and prevent 113,000 elderly and disabled state residents from losing health coverage due to an oversight in the budget they passed in October. Malloy says lawmakers should instead be focused on fixing the projected $208 million budget deficit.
“What they should be coming back in to do is address the deficit in the budget they passed which is only going to be impacted and made greater by any changes in the spending program that you are talking about.”
Malloy says he’s done his part by sending lawmakers a deficit mitigation plan with options for new taxes and spending cuts to help balance the budget.
“I gave them more than enough things to choose between. And they may have their own ideas but why would you delay balancing the budget?”
Some state legislative leaders have said they’d prefer to wait until mid-January. They say by then the state will know how much money would have come in from quarterly income tax receipts and the holiday sales tax receipts.
