Connecticut’s state budget faces a series of problems that have been building for some time. It’s why the Office of Fiscal Analysis shows looming budget deficits in the next two fiscal years.
But we’re not alone. A study of several states shows some of the same trends: Medicaid costs growing faster than states can raise money, which means less funding for education; the federal government cutting aid to states in an effort to cut their own deficits; reliance on volatile tax structures and massive underfunding of public pensions.
So, what to do? This is the topic of a panel discussion I hosted last week about fiscal sustainability.
We also talk with an NYU professor about who is actually voting in America, and why.
GUESTS:
- Secretary Benjamin Barnes - Connecticut Office of Policy Management
- Donald Boyd - Senior Fellow of the Rockefeller Institute of Government and Co-Executive Director of the Task Force on the State Budget Crisis
- Spencer Cain - President of Cain Associates - also the former Chief Budget Analyst of the State's nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis
- Keith Phaneuf - State Budget Reporter for The Connecticut Mirror
- Jonathan Nagler - Professor of Politics at New York University
