With today the deadline for taxpayers to make their final quarterly payment for the 2008 tax year. Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s office said payments are running about 22 percent below the same period last year.
Preliminary figures show state tax revenues are falling fast and the deficit could still balloon to about $1 billion. That gives Connecticut policymakers just 167 days to come up with a way to balance the current fiscal year.
As the General Assembly considered a plan late Wednesday to trim the current fiscal year’s deficit by about $133 million, they learned their efforts will likely be a drop in the bucket.
The House of Representatives passed the deficit-cutting plan on a mostly party-line vote of 111-35 after more than four hours of debate, led mostly by the minority Republicans who called for deeper cuts in spending and claimed the bill does not come close to tackling the deficit — last estimated at $343 million by the state comptroller’s office.
The bill passed on a party-line, 24-12 vote in the Senate — also controlled by Democrats — shortly before 1 a.m. today.
Rell, a Republican, said the legislation fell short of what’s needed to help erase the current fiscal year deficit. (AP)
