Connecticut is just days away from breaking a record for going on without a budget.
The record is 52 days, according to the Norwich Bulletin. We're at 48, as of Tuesday. The anniversary is Aug. 22, set in 1991, when Gov. Lowell Weicker was in office, the Connecticut Post reports. That’s the fateful year that the state set in place its first personal income tax.
Income tax, it just so happens, is one of the major reasons that there is no budget this time around either.
Democrats want to boost taxes on the state’s wealthiest residents, those making more than $500,000 per year. Gov. M. Jodi Rell has different ideas and has her own plan to raise taxes by $433 million.
Then, there are the Legislative Republicans who say the state needs no tax increase to fix the $8.56 billion deficit.
The stakes are huge if there is no consensus. Without a budget by Sept. 1, state Comptroller Nancy Wyman has warned, the state will have to use its Rainy Day fund. Just to balance the deficit from the last fiscal year.
That’s right – the rainy day fund will be wiped out. The towns and cities are depending on a budget for road and bridge projects and to keep the schools running.
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We're head-to-head with Pennsylvania, which is the only other state to lack a budget.
