Questions Arise Over When Malloy's Administration Knew About Budget Shortfall: Report

HARTFORD, CT — Amind shortfalls in the state budget and talks of layoffs looming, some political opponents of Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy are saying he may not have disclosed complete numbers for the current budget, according to media reports.

Malloy’s administration had warned state agency heads of a significant shortfall in the current budget last month, but has still been officially reporting that finances remain in balance, the CT Mirror reported. The administration has not reported any problems with the budget since the fiscal year began July 1.

According to documents obtained by CT Mirror, a revenue shortfall of $133 million was disclosed to agency heads on Sept. 6. The documents for the last official monthly budget forecast submitted, however, had excluded the revenue shortfall.

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The $130 million deficit was not made obvious in the letter to state agencies, but was included in a balance sheet showed the state only expected to receive about $17.53 billion in revenues in 2017, according to CT New Junkie. It was later reported on Sept. 20 the state will receive $17.88 billion in revenues.

A Malloy administration spokesman had said Monday that extremely conservative revenue estimates had been used in the Sept. 6 memo, according to the CT Mirror.

According to recent media reports, financial worries have been plaguing the state to some extent for months.

Administration had estimated fixed costs to increase by $1.1 billion for the next fiscal year, the Hartford Courant reported in October. Malloy had also asked state agencies to come up with proposals that would take into account a 10 percent reduction in spending.

Recently talks had also surfaced that schools could suffer as a result of budget woes and state spending cuts.

The Connecticut Technical High School System would need a total reduction of $16.3 million under the State Board of Education proposal, according to the Hartford Courant. Cutting athletics at all schools would account for $3 million, and closing two technical schools would save $11.4 million.

Read Patch’s further coverage of possible state spending cuts here.

Read the full CT Mirror story here.

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