WRA opines on our derelict leaders in Hartford

Today's WRA has a stinging editorial on the current year's burgeoning budget deficit and the "dereliction" of our leaders in Hartford:

However, applying (Comptroller Nancy Wyman's) percentages to 2007-08 revenue data and presuming they hold up for the full year, receipts from income, corporation and sales taxes would be off a combined $2.02 billion. Our guess is revenue declines in nine other tax categories, as well falling income from fees, investments and such, will overwhelm the savings from rescissions enacted to date. But with the economic fallout of the Wall Street meltdown and the deepening recession, it may well be that $2.02 billion understates the deficit by hundreds of millions. We'll know shortly.

The state now has a full-blown fiscal disaster that stealing bottle deposits won't solve and squandering the Rainy Day Fund only will worsen by gouging bigger holes in future budgets. For many months, Gov. Rell and Democratic lawmakers had access to much better data than ours, but refused to accept reality and respond accordingly — the very definition of dereliction.

Although it's been somewhat difficult to follow, I think that the various budget deficit mitigation actions to-date have totaled about $600 million. I hope we see some serious action soon.

Tim White