The governor’s administration recently sent a pair of letters with differing conclusions on the state’s possible budget shortfall.
In the first letter sent internally to state agency heads, the governor’s Office of Policy and Management Secretary (OPM) provided details on a then-projected $133 million shortfall. OPM Secretary Benjamin Barnes told agencies they would need to provide budget blueprints with options for cutting and spending.
In the second letter, sent Sept. 20, the one statutorily obligated to be sent to the state’s comptroller Kevin Lembo, Barnes said the budget was in balance.
When reached by phone Tuesday, Lembo said he was "troubled" by the dueling estimates.
Even though Lembo acknowledged there was no official wrongdoing, he chalked up the letter to agency heads as a "sort of management letter", the comptroller- who is in charge of monitoring the state’s revenues and expenditures- said he would have to ask Barnes questions about how his office reached the $133 million conclusion for state agencies and a balanced budget sheet for his consumption.
"It’s problematic for them to represent a different revenue and budgeted amount than what is actually occurring," Lembo said.
The governor’s administration is legally obligated to update the comptroller’s office on the 20th of each month as to the state’s budget conditions. Lembo said the letter sent to department heads, in his view, didn’t raise any red flags when it comes to accuracy.
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Lembo said, "That number in that document has no legal or process standing in how we calculate the deficit or the surplus."
Governor Dan Malloy said the letter sent to agency heads was a way of telling them to brace for possible cuts, though he didn’t acknowledge that there is a projected $1.5 billion shortfall coming from non-partisan budget analysts. He said there is a distinction between the two letters that may have gotten lost.
"One is you know, tell us how you'e going to budget off of this number, the other is where are we today?" Malloy asked.
He continued and said it would be irresponsible not to be in communication with his agencies regarding possible budget cuts which the state has seen for the past two fiscal years.
"We have been very conservative with our commissioners about what they can spend so when we tell commissioners you can spend X, Y, or Z, tells us how you're going to get to a five percent reduction, tell us how you're going to get to a ten percent reduction, tell us what you would expand if you could expand,” Malloy said.
Lembo says he may send questions to Barnes by the end of the week.
