Fiscal Policy
Update on Recent Legislative Action
I am following up on my update last week on the pending SEBAC (State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition) agreement and vote. With deep disappointment and equal dismay, I report to you that the State Senate approved this agreement to unionized state employee contracts yesterday. The vote was along party lines, with all 18 Democrat Senators…
Read MoreA Watershed Moment with the State Union Contract
Our Connecticut State Legislature is poised to make a truly historic choice; either dig our state out of a $5 billion biennial fiscal abyss responsibly or, once again, allow the state unions to reap asymmetrical benefits that significantly exceed both the private sector workforce and state employees from any other state in the country. One…
Read MoreFiscal Common Sense for Connecticut
On July 1st, Connecticut’s fiscal year started without legislative agreement on a budget. This inaction occurred despite the fact that our state continues to face deeply complex and challenging fiscal hurdles to close a $5 billion biennial deficit. The majority party in Hartford that brought us to this fiscal brink has failed to find a…
Read MoreUpdate from the Capitol – Still No Budget
The 2017 regular session of the Connecticut General Assembly adjourned without an agreement being reached on a state budget. There remains a $5.1 billion projected budget deficit for the next biennium. We are now convened in a special session, and we are at a point where the governor has issued his first executive order…
Read MoreIt’s Time for State Employee Benefit Reform
The state’s financial crisis is getting worse. A couple of weeks ago the upcoming two-year deficit was about $3.5 billion dollars. Now it’s over $5 billion dollars, and, our bonds have been downgraded by all three major rating agencies just in the past few days. House Republicans proposed an updated budget recently that includes no…
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