Representative T.R. Rowe (R-123) says the latest budget numbers coming from the state’s various fiscal authorities are demonstrating rather convincingly that the Governor’s approach to solving the state’s economic troubles just isn’t working.
Consensus revenue figures this week from the Office of Fiscal Analysis and the Office of Policy and Management show that the current fiscal year will end with at least a $243.3 million budget deficit, likely considerably more.
“This governor has had two legislative sessions to work at fixing the state’s economic problems,” said Rep. Rowe. “I think by now it is obvious that a $2 billion tax increase and a $1 billion spending increase weren’t the way to solve the state’s fiscal mess.”
Rowe said that he is disappointed with the path Governor Malloy has chosen to take regarding Connecticut’s fiscal woes.
“Despite the administration’s assurances that we would finish the fiscal year in the black, we are on course to potentially arrive at the end of the fiscal year a half billion dollars in the red,” said Rowe. “We have had a credit downgrade from Moody’s Investment Services due to poor fiscal policies. We were borrowing money from capital projects just to pay to keep the lights on at the beginning of the year. Governor Malloy now plans to divert $222 million from payments on 2009 debt to pay operating expenses, risking a further downgrade in credit. This is a troubling path we are going down, to say the least.”
