Primary Winner Could Challenge Gov. Rell
By P.J. Cimini
As this column goes to print we are one week out from some extremely contentious primaries in Connecticut. National attention has been focused on the Senate primary between sitting Senator Joe Lieberman and challenger Ned Lamont. In addition, there is a Democratic primary for Governor between two Mayors, Dan Malloy of Stamford and John DeStefano of New Haven. The winner of that battle will earn the right to challenge Governor M. Jodi Rell.
All the State Senate and the State House seats are up this November and this will be the last election held before the new Connecticut Campaign Finance law goes into effect in January 2007. The new law will set up a new system of publicly financed campaigns that will attempt to take private money out of the system.
The General Assembly adjourned in May after a short three-month session. Thanks to a significant early effort and outreach the sales tax issue on carwashes did not become a bill or an issue in this session. Revenues were up sharply, the elections were looming in the fall and the willingness of the General Assembly and the Governor to raise taxes was not strong.
Next year, despite increased revenues this year, it is likely that the
General Assembly will look seriously into reforming the tax system in
Connecticut, including the sales tax.
The state will end the 2006 fiscal year with a budget surplus of more than $940 million. The main source of the surplus is higher-than-expected revenue from the income tax, including the payroll tax and capital gains paid by investors. The income tax will bring in about $6 billion this year - about $384 million more than original estimates.
With the expected deposit of $455 million of surplus revenue, the Rainy Day Fund will reach more than $1 billion for the first time. That is slightly less than 10 percent of the current $15.2 billion state budget.
Connecticut also is still seeing fairly sluggish job growth, gaining a net total of about 7,000 jobs for the year. That is about half the growth rate of the 2005 fiscal year. The state's unemployment rate of 4.1 percent remains lower than the national average of 4.6 percent.
The state also continues to see strong revenues from casino gaming ($427 million) and from the inheritance and estate tax ($196 million).
The budget approved by the Legislature this spring called for $245 million of the surplus to be put into the under funded teachers' pension plan and $85.5 million to pay economic-recovery notes issued to deal with a budget deficit in 2002.
P.J. Cimini, Esq. is the CCA's lobbyist and a partner in Capitol Strategies Group, LLC, in Hartford. You can reach P.J. at 860/293-2581 or click here to email her.
