Senate Republicans want to enact an enforceable state spending cap in the upcoming legislative session. That’s in the wake of a ruling by Attorney General George Jepsen that Connecticut’s current constitutional spending cap “has no legal effect” in its current form because lawmakers never adopted definitions to solidify the law in statute.
Senate Republicans asked the Attorney General for this opinion to clarify the state spending cap. “The spending cap in its current form is insufficient and does not protect taxpayers. This new opinion shows that not only is the cap being disregarded, it’s also not enforceable,” said Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano.
According to Fasano’s office, the constitutional cap was proposed as part of the state’s income-tax compromise in 1991. It was meant to assure people that the state would not engage in runaway spending after increasing taxes by over $1 billion with the passage of the income tax. Voters approved the cap by a 4 to 1 margin in a 1992 ballot question.
