State Treasurer Denise Nappier said Thursday she plans to eliminate a $550 million line of credit she sought authorization for last year when the state was low on cash.
Nappier got approval from Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in December after the state’s cash pool dropped a negative balance, prompting the temporary transfer of money from bond fund investment accounts.
Nappier said she never had to draw from the credit line, which was reduced from $550 million to $300 million by the time her office sought the authorization.
“I’m now looking at eliminating it, extinguishing it in December,” Nappier said Thursday after an unrelated press event. “We have the opportunity to roll it over or renew it but we’re going to get rid of it altogether.”
Asked how the state’s cash-flow situation was, Nappier said it was very good.
“We’re in the money right now. Revenues have come in slightly better than had been projected and I would say that’s probably the main reason,” she said.
Nappier said additional expenses the state picked up as a result of the federal government shutdown, which ended Wednesday night, lowered the state’s daily cash flow to some extent.
“But based on our projections, if the federal government had remained shut down we could have gone as far as the end of the calendar year, maybe to February, before there would have been a serious problem with cash again,” she said.
Rep. Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, one of the state’s biggest critics of cash flow management, said he thinks the state will maintain a good cash position.
During an interview on WTIC Friday, Candelora said he doesn’t believe the state is in a position now where it will have to take money from bond funds and temporarily transfer them into operating funds.
But he’s going to keep an eye on the monthly cash flow reports that he helped establish back in 2010.
The last time the state made transfers between bond proceed investment accounts and the common cash pool was in March and April.
Christine Stuart contributed to this report.
