Report Provides New Data-Driven Options to Modify Fiscal Guardrails
The Connecticut Project Action Fund cites fiscal cliff, critical needs, long-term stability in call to responsibly modify fiscal rules
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 11, 2024
Contact: Meghan Holden, The Connecticut Project Action Fund, meghanholden@ctproject.org
NEW HAVEN – As debate grows over Connecticut’s fiscal future, The Connecticut Project and Yale University’s Tobin Center today released a report showing the impact of the state’s fiscal guardrails and providing new data-driven options to modify them should the state decide to do so. While not advocating for a course of action, the report shows that Connecticut is facing a looming budget cliff and that there are options to modify the guardrails while continuing to protect against crisis budgeting and preserve debt payments.
The Connecticut Project Action Fund, however, is taking a position on the fiscal guardrails. Citing an imminent budget cliff and the state’s pressing need to fund critical programs and services, The Connecticut Project Action Fund today called on the Governor and Legislature to modify them.
“Connecticut needs a budget that works for our past, present, and future,” said Garth Harries, president and CEO of The Connecticut Project Action Fund. “Working people in Connecticut are facing a cost of living crisis, federal pandemic relief money is running out, and we can’t settle for short-term fixes. Our elected leaders must modify the fiscal rules to make them truly fiscally responsible, which requires not just paying down debt and building savings but investing in critical programs and services like childcare, healthcare, and home energy costs. We’ve been given a false choice between paying debt and giving taxpayers relief through important programs and services. We believe the state can and should do both, and this report lays out data-driven options for doing so.”
“With increasing concerns about unmet needs, and annual surpluses above the volatility cap cumulatively approaching $10 billion over the last seven years, there is a growing chorus of voices calling for reform to Connecticut’s fiscal guardrails. That debate will likely grow louder in the coming months as Connecticut faces its first budget in recent years without the benefit of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to supplement state revenues,” wrote the authors of the joint report with Yale University’s Tobin Center for Economic Policy.
Read a copy of the report online.
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