Legislators lay out dire economic picture for 2011-13

FALLS VILLAGE — State legislators from the Northwest Corner provided a grim picture of the state’s economic outlook and heard from constituents during a meeting at Housatonic Valley Regional High School Thursday, March 31.State Sen. Andrew Roraback (R-30) was the de facto host of the gathering. He was joined by state Representatives Roberta Willis (D-64) and John Rigby (R-63). The lawmakers each made brief introductory remarks. Roraback led off, noting that statistics from the state Office of Policy Management project deficits of about $3.187 billion for the 2012 fiscal year, and $2.953 for 2013. (Connecticut makes biennial budgets.)Gov. Dannel Malloy’s proposed budget makes up for these deficits with a combination of tax increases, spending reductions and anticipated concessions from state employees.This last item, Roraback said, makes up 30 percent of the governor’s deficit-closing proposal, and would amount to $22,000 per state employee per year, adding up to about $1 billion per year.(“Revenue changes” account for 58 percent of the governor’s proposal, and spending cuts 13 percent, according to the handout distributed at the meeting. Those numbers add up to 101 percent.)Roraback said at a lunch meeting earlier that day that Malloy “was guarded in his assesssment” of whether or not the concessions were obtainable.Roraback, the ranking minority member on the state Senate’s finance committee, said that from the revenue side, the combination of tax hikes and increases in fees would cost citizens $545 per capita in the first year and about $500 in the second year.Willis said the Legislature faces “an extraordinarily difficult task” and that some combination of higher taxes and spending cuts is inevitable.She emphasized the amount of money that goes to fund Medicaid services for the state’s aging population, noted that last year state workers agreed to $100 million in concessions, and cautioned that “if you eliminated every state employee tomorrow, we’d only be at a $2.2 billion deficit.”Willis also offered a bit of good news: a $158 million revenue surplus over projections as of last week. While it’s a modest amount in terms of the overall budget picture, she said it indicates that “people are getting back to work — the needle’s pointing in the right direction.”Rigby said he was concerned that Malloy’s proposal raises revenue first and then addresses spending cuts, and noted that the 2011 budget contained one-year infusions of cash from the federal government through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka “the stimulus”).And as if anticipating a suggestion that came later from the audience, Rigby said that the top 10 percent of Connecticut’s earners pay 59 percent of the state’s tax revenue, while the bottom 40 percent accounts for just 1 percent. The crowd of about 40 people made comments and suggestions that covered the partisan spectrum. They included: cutting the size of state government; cutting state government spending; creating a special billionaires’ tax; asking state employees to have an IRA or 401(k) rather than a pension, and to pay a greater percentage of their health insurance costs.Other suggestions included increasing taxes on cigarettes, both as a financial and public health measure; eliminating “pension padding”; putting a two-year “sunset” limit on any new taxes passed in this budget cycle; ensuring that government agencies run “efficiently.”One big problem with concessions from the state’s workforce is the current contract (with 19 bargaining units), which expires in 2017. Any attempt by the Legislature to get around that deal would almost certainly be challenged in court, Roraback said later in the meeting. Malloy’s only leverage is the threat of layoffs and any concessions will be voluntary, Roraback said.“Until we know the answer to the concession question the Legislature is at a loss. It’s 30 percent of the solution.”Referring to recent strife in Wisconsin between that state’s governor, legislature and state employee unions, Roraback said, “Look to New Haven, not Wisconsin,” where 3,000 people protested last week against a proposed privatization of custodial services in public schools.“Frankly I’m not convinced it is realistic to [hope to] get those concessions.”Rigby suggested rolling all state spending back to the 2008 level, for starters. “They will find a way to operate with what they’ve got.”And Willis noted that cash-strapped towns will still get their grants for roads and education in the governor’s proposal. That funding “is flat but it’s not cut.”Roraback wrapped the evening up: “It’s loud and clear that we’re all in this together.”