CONNECTICUT, USA — A new state report shows Connecticut could lose money, but state officials said the budget is still in the black.
“We're seeing some weakness in revenue and it's a caution for the future,” said Connecticut’s Office of Policy and Management Secretary Jeffrey Beckham.
The state’s November 2023 Consensus Revenue Forecast from the state Offices of Policy and Management, and Fiscal Analysis shows revenues are down about $460 million across the next two fiscal years.
“We've seen some softness in some of the revenue,” explained Beckham. “Sales tax is off a little bit, there seems to be a shift in what people are buying these days shifting from taxable items to a bit more in the area of items that are not taxed like food and energy… Nothing that we're concerned about, however, our state's overall financial position remains very strong, we're still projected to end the fiscal year with a surplus.”
But how is the state projected to lose money and still end up with a budget surplus? Beckham said, “Since we're getting a little bit less revenue than we projected, the surplus will not be as large as we had anticipated, but we're still in surplus.”
When the state’s $26 billion budget for 2024-25 was approved at the end of this year’s legislative session, Connecticut was predicted to have $1 billion left over.
This new report puts that surplus at only $735 million. That’s 30% less than anticipated.
“We have a balanced budget at the moment, it’s still in balance, but we've got some work to do to stay there,” Beckham said.
A big item from this past legislative session was the state income tax cut, but Beckham said this predicted loss in revenue is not related to that, saying the tax cut is not going away.
Beckham added the state will need to make some midterm budget changes during this upcoming 2024 legislative session to adjust and is working on recommendations now.
Emma Wulfhorst is a political reporter for FOX61 News. She can be reached at ewulfhorst@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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