Toni Nathaniel Harp

Harp Helps Win Senate Passage of Deficit Mitigation Legislation

State Senator Toni N. Harp (D-New Haven), Senate chair of the legislature‘s Appropriations Committee, today helped secure senate approval for a series of budget adjustments midway through the current fiscal year. Over the past couple of weeks Senator Harp has been a key figure in talks between legislative leaders and administration officials about what to include in today‘s legislation meant to bring the state‘s spending plan back into balance.

A year-to-date budget gap of an estimated at $365 million is to be bridged through a combination of spending reductions previously made—autonomously—by Governor Malloy and provisions of today‘s legislation.

“A still-sluggish economy has contributed to lagging state revenues that, when combined with other expenses, yield the budgetary shortfall we wanted to address this month,” Senator Harp said. “We‘ve worked successfully over the past couple weeks to trim expenditures as necessary to eliminate this projected shortfall while maintaining necessary services for those state residents who really need them.”

“Making meaningful adjustments later in the fiscal year becomes more difficult because there‘s less time for them to add up, so we were compelled to act on this mitigation plan sooner rather than later,” Senator Harp added.

Portions of the legislation approved today include minor revenue adjustments to be achieved through revised business tax credits and monitoring strict income tax compliance, Senator Harp said.

Today‘s Special Session of the legislature included a rare Joint Session in the Hall of the House during which Governor Malloy and members of the General Assembly took part in a memorial service to honor the victims of last Friday‘s attack at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.