Senator McKinney’s Statement Re: Comptroller’s Deficit Projection

Hartford, CT – Throughout Governor Malloy’s first year in office, budget projections released by the Office of Policy and Management and the State Comptroller largely mirrored each other. That changed today when State Comptroller Kevin Lembo released a post-GAAP deficit projection of $95.7 million for the current fiscal year. That is $56.6 million larger than the $39.1 million deficit projected by OPM. The legislature’s non-partisan Office of Fiscal Analysis projected a $236 million deficit last week.

State Senate Minority Leader John McKinney (R-Fairfield) today released the following statement in response to the Comptroller’s latest projection: “The Comptroller and the non-partisan Office of Fiscal Analysis (OFA) agree that the governor’s revenue and savings projections are unrealistic. Last week, Governor Malloy flatly rejected the $236 million deficit projection reported by OFA. I hope he is less dismissive of the warning the Comptroller issued today. We have a deficit and we have limited time to fix it. The prudent and necessary course of action is for the governor and the legislature immediately to prepare a deficit mitigation plan.”

Senator McKinney cautioned that even the Comptroller’s projected deficit assumes more savings than OFA believes will be achieved between now and the end of the fiscal year. Nonetheless, he hoped the confluence of professional analysis by OFA and the Comptroller will finally move the governor to address the budget deficit.