Gov. Malloy started warming up for a bipartisan deficit solution in a high-profile lunch meeting.
Last week, Governor Dannel P. Malloy announced cuts to social services and health care in his second round of emergency rescissions to cut down the state budget deficit.
Malloy’s office projected a $121 million deficit last week. On Monday, the non-partisan Office of Fiscal Analysis estimated the deficit is closer to $202 million.
The governor's emergency cuts bring the total deficit down by $31.5 million, but only narrowly avoid the one-percent threshold that would require Malloy to issue a deficit mitigation plan to the General Assembly. He'll have to stop making unilateral cuts if the deficit reaches $174.6.
The OFA’s projections, including Malloy’s emergency cuts, currently have the deficit at $170.9 million.
Malloy started warming up for a bipartisan deficit solution in a high-profile lunch meeting last week with Republican House Minority Leader ThemisKlarides.
After Republicans in the legislature complained about not being part of budget cut discussions, Malloy told them to write their ideas on the back of an envelope. They responded accordingly with a meeting invitation – yes, on the back of an envelope.
Speaking on WNPR’s Where We Live, Mark Pazniokas, Capitol bureau chief for the The Connecticut Mirror, said the only compromise reached during the meeting was a more efficient process for setting up bipartisan budget cut meetings.
“It went like this: [Malloy said:] If you want to have a meeting, you pick up the phone, and call me. And if I want to have a meeting, I’ll pick up the phone and call you. And that’s an actual pretty much verbatim exchange,” Pazniokas said.
House Republican Leader Themis Klarides and Governor Malloy discuss the budget deficit over lunch #ctbudget pic.twitter.com/9P15l6ywOQ
— CT House Republicans (@cthouserules) January 23, 2015
Also speaking on Where We Live, Dan Haar, columnist for The Hartford Courant, said the governor isn't leaning toward compromise just yet.
"In his second term, we're seeing signs that the governor is more headstrong and less willing to be collaborative," Haar said. "We'll see if that bears fruit on February 18 and beyond when we look at the budget, when there is a need for collaboration and we may or may not see one."
Malloy announced the budget cuts a few hours after the lunch date with Klarides took place.
Ryan King is an intern at WNPR.