Brace for Lean Budget
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget director warned advocates for children, the poor and other disadvantaged citizens to brace for a lean budget when the administration releases its spending plan in two weeks.
Office of Policy and Management Secretary Benjamin Barnes also said the administration still is fighting to protect education, social services and health care. But surging employee benefit costs – caused by decades' worth of inadequate savings practices – are squeezing other priorities’ share of the budget.
And while one advocacy group made its pitch for a new income tax credit to help families with dependents, Barnes was skeptical that an already approved tax cut for the working poor would kick in this year as planned.
“We are facing some extraordinary challenges,” Barnes told the crowd of about 75 people gathered at the Capitol for the annual budget forum of Connecticut Voices for Children, a New Haven-based nonprofit policy group
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