Contact: Zak Sanders
zsanders@ctgop.org

HARTFORD—Connecticut Republican Party Chairman Jerry Labriola, Jr. made the following statement this morning on that the state Office of Policy and Management estimated on Friday that the state will end the year with a $141.9 million deficit, about $80 million worse than projected last month:

“On Friday, OPM Secretary Benjamin Barnes said of the deficit, ‘It’s bad,’ and that the Malloy budget will end the year ‘with a significant deficit.’

“Month after month, Governor Malloy has insisted that his ‘honest, balanced budget’ would finish the year in the black, despite monthly estimates to the contrary by the Office of Fiscal Analysis, the Comptroller, the consensus revenue estimates and now the governor’s own budget chief.

“For months, these fiscal experts have been trying to point out that the Emperor’s budget is indeed scantily clad.  Despite the biggest tax hike in state history, the Governor’s and the legislative Democrats’ insatiable appetite for spending has driven Connecticut yet again into a deep budget hole.

“It is certainly disappointing that Barnes reports there also are NO plans to make additional state agency spending cuts.  It seems the state is destined to ‘solve’ the deficit issue by what has now become for the Democrats ‘the old-fashioned way’ – with more taxes and more borrowing.”