Lowered expectations for income tax collections have pushed State Comptroller Kevin Lembo to increase his estimate for the fiscal 2015 budget deficit to $101.2 million, his office announced Monday.
That’s up from Lembo’s estimated deficit of $89.4 million, released in early February.
And it’s $40 million higher than the Office of Policy Management’s own estimate last month.
Lembo attributed the increased estimate to changes in capital-gains tax receipts, which made deficit projecting a difficult task in the previous two fiscal years.
OPM’s deficit projection assumes a 20 percent increase in income tax payments between January and April, but Lembo said that a 4.9 percent increase through January has him convinced that kind of growth won’t happen.
He also said that stock trading volume — which generates taxable receipts — has fallen, as some Connecticut investors move to lower-risk portfolios.
