By Keith M. Phaneuf and Mark Pazniokas

www.ctmirror.org

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy today signaled an intention to lay off state employees in the current fiscal year, saying the workforce must shrink substantially, and that the process must begin before the fiscal year ends on June 30.

Malloy, who spoke to reporters after a meeting with legislative leaders, chose his words carefully when pressed about the scope of coming layoffs, referring to the damages the state had to pay over former Gov. John G. Rowland’s mishandling of layoffs a dozen years ago.

“I don’t want to give to some future governor the Rowland problem, right? So those numbers are being worked out, and we have to dot every ‘i’ and cross every ‘t,’ but they’re substantial,” he said.

The governor was referring to about 2,800 pink slips the Rowland administration issued in late 2002 to help close a major state budget deficit. Unions sued in federal court, and the settlement reached 11 years later will cost the state an estimated $100 million to $125 million. It was structured to minimize the fiscal impact on the state by compensating a majority of the plaintiffs with extra vacation and personal days, not cash.

Click here for more of story

By Keith M. Phaneuf

www.ctmirror.org

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy today—for the second time in five months—challenged legislative leaders to offer alternative spending cuts rather than complain about his decision to suspend payments to hospitals to mitigate the state budget deficit.

The Democratic governor took heat from legislators from both parties last week after he suspended about $140 million in payments earmarked for hospitals in connection with the state’s health care provider tax. The governor also is withholding $3.89 million in payments for community health centers.

State Comptroller Kevin P. Lembo certified a nearly $220 million general fund deficit last week for the fiscal year that ends June 30. And the legislature’s nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis places the shortfall at slightly more, $266 million.

Most of the this deficit is caused by eroding state income tax receipts identified in projections issued in late February.

Click here for more of story

By Keith M. Phaneuf

www.ctmirror.org

Connecticut’s labor leaders insist the writing is on the wall.

Barring a dramatic new development, they say, state employees will be asked to grant wage and benefit concessions for the third time in seven years.

Perhaps the request will come this spring. Perhaps it will come in 2017 — just after the next state election. In some smaller ways it already has begun.

But that doesn’t mean that workers are ready to endorse more givebacks.

Click here for more of story

By Keith M. Phaneuf and Arielle Levin Becker

www.ctmirror.org

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration confirmed today the downward trend in state revenues — though not the precise numbers — that nonpartisan analysts reported earlier this week.

While the governor never used the word “layoff,” he told reporters today that state government’s workforce must shrink considerably soon, and that the next state budget, for the 2016-17 fiscal year, still must be balanced without tax hikes.

And Malloy’s budget chief, Office of Policy and Management Secretary Benjamin Barnes, told legislators today that the administration has been monitoring negative trends in state income tax receipts since mid-January. The administration’s decision not to report this before today prompted one Republican on the legislature’s tax-writing panel to call the choice “reprehensible.”

“I think there’s a bigger downside than there is an upside” to state tax revenues at this time, Malloy told reporters after a press conference to promote a constitutional amendment to protect state funding for transportation.

Click here for more of story