Budget Deadline Comes with No Action by Legislature
Malloy Offers Mini Budget then Expresses his Frustration
Legislators Pin Blame on House D’s who Offer their Own Budget Which Includes a Sales Tax Hike
Links to Live By
Retail News and Notes
- Yesterday was suppose to be the day of reckoning for the CT General Assembly as the goal from what seemed like the beginning of the session, to adopt a new two year state budget by the end of the fiscal year.
- During the regular session, which began in January it became pretty clear that the General Assembly would not have either the will or the ideas or the votes, or all three, to adopt a budget by the time they were scheduled to adjourn in early June.
- So, most Capitol observers took the Legislative Leaders, i.e. the Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz and House Majority Leader Ritter and Democratic Senate Leaders Martin Looney and Bob Duff, at their word that: not to worry, they had until June 30th before the fiscal year ended and they would have a budget in place.
- Well, unless a miracle happens between now and midnight tonight, the State will end the fiscal year with no budget in place.
- Yesterday was a day of competing press conferences and a lot finger pointing, but NO budget.
- For sure, the Legislature had some options they could have done, without simply allowing the Governor to impose whatever he wants to do by executive order, including adopting a “mini budget” which would allow the State to operate until September while giving the Legislature more time to work it out among themselves.
- But, Legislative leaders could not agree amongst themselves (more about that later) so the deadline day came and went. And now Governor Malloy’s in the driver seat and makes all budget decisions without any Legislative input.
Malloy Offers Mini Budget then Expresses his Frustration
- Among the most vocal in their frustration with non- action by the Legislature to take up a budget, was Governor Malloy.
- As we mentioned, leading up to yesterday, perhaps because he could sense that a full 2 year budget was out of reach, the Governor offered the Legislature a mini budget, which would have funded the Government thru September thereby giving them more time to negotiate a full two year budget.
- The mini budget, would have also kept funding in place for programs that many Legislators support and depend on, including summer youth jobs and funding for non-profits.
- You can read more about Malloy’s attempt to get the Legislature to adopt a mini budget here.
- But, the mini budget, which seemed to have support in the State Senate, did not get the necessary support from the Majority House D’s.
- And that is what lead to the failure of any action yesterday and to Malloy’s rather candid comments about the failure of the Legislature and who is to blame.
- The CT Mirror does a great job covering what the Governor said . If you want to hear for yourself the Governor’s comments check out the CGA website and while there scroll down to CTN.
- CTN on demand will have the full Malloy press conference where he doesn’t seem to pull any punches.
Legislators Pin Blame on House D’s who Offer their Own Budget Which Includes a Sales Tax Hike
- While you are on the CTN on demand page, you will also be able to view the other press conferences that were held yesterday.
- We think you will agree with us, that a lot of the blame for the failure of the Legislature to pass a budget is falling on the shoulders of House Speaker Aresimowicz and his caucus.
- While simultaneously saying he would not support a temporary or mini budget he put forth his own caucus’s full funded 2 year budget that, among other things, INCREASES the State’s sales tax.
- The House D’s budget, which they say will be voted on by the General Assembly on July 18th, would take the sales tax from its current rate of 6.35% to 6.99%.
- But they also add a couple of other twists to the issue. For starters, they say the only way a city or town can take whatever additional revenue that might raise by the sales tax increases is if the Town’s governing body takes an affirmative vote in favor of the State aid.
- If you are confused by that, join the crowd. Never before has the Legislature said to a town, the only way you can continue to get State aid is if your legislative body goes along with a new tax that the General Assembly has decided to adopt.
- In addition, the House D’s have included in their budget a local option for an additional 1% increase in the sales tax for food and beverage sales.
- Following the House D’s press conference the House R’s held one, where their leader House Minority Leader Themis Klarides also did not pull any punches when she said there was no way her caucus would support any increases in any tax. And she too could not understand why the House D’s would not support the Governor’s mini budget.
- Meanwhile, in the State Senate, which as you know is tied 18 to 18, both Senate leaders, Looney and Fasano and their deputies held a press conference where they seem to say that they could support the Governor’s mini budget as well.
- And Senator Looney threw some cold water on the Speakers plan to come into session on July 18th by saying he had not made up his mind yet if he would support that idea.
- So, at the end of the day, they only thing that we can say for certain is that there is no State budget in place, Governor Malloy will run the State month to month by executive order and MAYBE the Legislature will take another shot at adopting a budget on July 18th.
- Stay tuned….
Links to Live By
- During all the silly budget mess, one of CT’s leading corporate citizens announced they are moving their headquarters from Hartford to NYC. The Hartford Courant has more on where and what Aetna’s new home will look like.
- The New Haven Register gives an overview of the new laws that go into place July 1st.
- CRMA Board member Marc Green shares and interesting story about retail job losses and the political impact those might have.
Retail News and Notes
Amaaon, Whole Foods deal to raise the bar for Target
- Amazon’s deal to acquire Whole Foods Market could bring new challenges for Target, which recently launched a three-year revitalization and store redesign plan with food playing a key role. “Whatever competitive pressures were out there before today are now accentuated with this move,” Morgan Stanley Analyst Simeon Gutman said.
- Banana Republic has teamed with textile supplier Piece & Co. to introduce a collection of summer styles created with sustainable fabrics hand crafted by women in South Africa and Ghana. The capsule collection will go on sale next week online and at stores in Japan and North America.
- US consumers are expected to spend an average of $73.42 per person to celebrate Independence Day this year, up from $71.34 last year, according to an NRF survey, which also forecasts that food spending for the holiday will hit $7.1 billion. About 44.2 million people plan to travel more than 50 miles for a long July 4 weekend, according to AAA.