Connecticut Comptroller Kevin Lembo said Monday that the state is on track to end fiscal 2013 with a $26.9-million deficit and warned that a slow national and state economic recovery continue to influence the state budget.
In a letter to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, Lembo reported that his office generally agrees with the Office of Policy and Management’s current budgetary deficit projection, which is a deterioration of $30 million from last month.
Declining sales tax and casino revenue as well as increased Medicaid spending are the main culprits driving the deficit, Lembo said.
Medicaid added more than 1,700 additional clients in the month of August alone — a one month increase of 0.7 percent, and well above budget expectations, Lembo said.
Lembo said Medicaid will run $100 million over budget, half of which will be offset by a federal match. The other offset to the $50 million in net higher Medicaid spending is a $20 million reduction in debt service cost due to lower than anticipated rates of borrowing.
