Gov. M. Jodi Rell proposes to eliminate the current fiscal year’s remaining $356 million deficit without raising taxes, laying off state employees or spending any of state’s $1.4 billion budget reserve.
Rell is calling the lame duck legislature back to the Capitol Jan. 2, five days before the new session opens, to vote on her latest deficit-cutting plan.
Rell said the economy is worsening in Connecticut and policy-makers cannot wait until the new legislative session convenes.
“We cannot put off reality. We cannot wait to take action,” she said. “The legislature, the sitting legislature, needs to take action.”
If the Democratic-controlled legislature agrees to take action on Jan. 2, it will mark the second special session called to deal with the current fiscal year deficit. Back on Nov. 24, lawmakers approved a plan that covered $300 million of the red ink. But the state’s revenues have continued to shrink and the 2008-09 deficit problems have persisted.
Rell also has cut about $184 million in spending using executive powers.
Meanwhile, the new General Assembly will have to deal with the budgets for the next two fiscal years, with projected shortfalls of about $6 billion.
House Speaker James Amann, D-Milford, who is retiring from the legislature, did not say whether lawmakers will show up and take a vote on Jan. 2. (AP)
