Gov. M. Jodi Rell says she will erase Connecticut’s latest budget deficit of nearly $470 million. Her plans include forgoing a reduction in Connecticut’s sales tax rate from 6 percent to 5.5 percent, freezing enrollment in the state’s Charter Oak Health Plan for the insured, cutting state aid to cities and towns by 3 percent or $84 million, and cutting state agency budgets by more than $31 million.
“It is deeply painful even to suggest these cuts — and yet they are unquestionably necessary,” Rell said in a statement. “State government cannot afford, literally or figuratively, to allow this budget — which has only been in effect a few short months — to grow any further out of balance.
