“The reality is, we know there are residents of the Forbes 500 in the state of CT and, as I understand, some of those residents moved out in the previous year and more to come”, he said.
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The resolution passed the Senate unanimously and the House of Representatives 138-9.
Democratic leaders of the Connecticut General Assembly say they’re reached a deal with Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on an eleventh-hour plan to cover a projected $960 million deficit in the new fiscal year.
Both chambers are controlled by Democrats, who chose to scrap a planned vote Wednesday night on a budget deal they reached with Malloy.
Malloy says he hopes the delay will not encourage lawmakers to try and change the Democratic budget plan, saying he “will not move from the principles we’ve agreed to”.
Malloy, who made a decision to forgo his traditional midnight address to the General Assembly, said he was fine with the delay so long as lawmakers don’t attempt to reopen the deal.
A tentative eleventh-hour proposal last night gives a glimmer of hope that something can get done before the legislative session ends at midnight on Wednesday.
Looney also expects lawmakers to vote on a bonding bill and Malloy’s criminal justice bill next week. Among other things, it would allow the juvenile court system to have jurisdiction over defendants who are 20-years old or younger. Len Fasano, the minority leader, said.
No date for a special session has been set yet but a House Dems spokesman said it would probably be next week. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy warned them not to use it as a tactic to avoid tough choices.
He said lawmakers planned to meet with Malloy’s budget staff on Monday night to see whether there’s a chance “to work out a deal that we can recommend to our members and that the governor will sign” into law.
Leaders appear optimistic that a deal can be reached in time for a vote by Wednesday’s midnight deadline. According to the legislature’s Office of Fiscal Analysis, the adjusted gross income of the state’s top 50 taxpayers dropped 30 percent from income year 2014 to income year 2015, representing a loss of $217 million in state revenue.
Malloy met with majority Democratic lawmakers for about two hours Tuesday evening, a day before the legislature’s scheduled midnight adjournment on Wednesday.
“It’s our expectation to run this in both houses”, he said, although he acknowledged that would depend on how much debate Republicans put forward. They were not part of the final negotiations and are unhappy with the last-minute push. They only had unofficial spreadsheets and revenue estimates.
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Sen. Michael McLachlan, R-Danbury, said that disclosure about the top 50 taxpayers “is the atomic bomb that everybody was anxious about”, referring to predictions by many Republicans that state tax policy was encouraging the wealthy to leave CT. “I said in February that we should not pass a budget on the last day of session”.
