Governor: No Intention of Raising Taxes

12.01.2012
Economy

Will the state legislature follow his lead?

Pictured with the governor are CBIA board chair Tom Santa, president and CEO of Santa Energy Corporation (left), and Michael Wise, president of ConnectiCare.

Early next year, Gov. Dannel Malloy will present a new budget to the General Assembly. Two years removed from the largest tax increase in the state’s history, the governor has different plans this time around.

“I don’t know what’s going to come out of Washington,” he told more than 400 business leaders at CBIA’s Annual Meeting in Hartford, “but I don’t intend to raise taxes. We’ve done enough of that. We need to live within the means that we’ve established, and we need to continue the process of becoming substantially more efficient in the provision of [state] services.”

Despite progress that’s already been made, reaching those goals is absolutely critical, especially given that the state is already on course to end the current fiscal year

(FY 2013) with a $60.1 budget deficit, a shortfall that could reach $200 according to current estimates by the Office of the State Comptroller. Whether the majority party in the state Senate and House follow the governor’s lead, however, remains to be seen.

Business Speed

The administration’s focus during the last budget cycle, the governor said, was on “getting our own fiscal house in order,” while making government more efficient.

“It’s not easy. It’s not pretty,” he said, “But we have to approach the business of government the same way that you approach running your businesses.

“I’m not a job creator. You’re the job creators. Government needs to get off your backs and get to yes or no in a reasonable period of time: not measured by the glacial speed that government normally reacts at, but at the speed that business has to be conducted at.”

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