Earlier this month, South Windsor-based EPS Printing won a $50,000 contract to publish the governor”™s 350-page budget for the upcoming three years.
EPS should check its red ink inventory.
The Connecticut Office of Policy and Management sharply revised upward its budget deficit projections, now predicting a $2.6 billion revenue shortfall in the 2010 fiscal year and a $3.3 billion deficit in fiscal 2011.
“The national economic woes have left us with a hangover we will be dealing with for years to come,” Rell said, in a prepared statement. “However, this is also a time of opportunity ”“ an opportunity to streamline government, to return it to its core functions, to position it to finally address long-term problems.”
The Connecticut General Assembly was scheduled to convene in special session on Monday, Nov. 24, to consider Gov. M. Jodi Rell”™s proposal to cover a $300 million shortfall for the 2009 fiscal year.
That plan relies on deriving additional revenue from sources such as the federal Medicaid program.
Separately, the Rell administration released some of the results of an ongoing survey online soliciting input for the budget planning process.
Ideas have included cutting state employee hours to 35 a week; eliminating pay hikes; and shifting more of the costs of health care insurance onto state employees.
Others include:
Ӣ privatizing transit districts;
Ӣ using smaller, more efficient vehicles in the state fleet;
Ӣ allowing the sale of alcohol on Sundays;
Ӣ selling off excess state property; and
Ӣ reestablishing tolls on highways;
One contributor also suggested standardizing the state”™s printing and publication process.
