Connecticut’s expected General Fund surplus shrank for the fourth month in a row, according to a Friday fiscal update by Comptroller Sean Scanlon, who projected the state would end the 2024 fiscal year with $153.9 million in black ink.
In addition to the General Fund surplus, Scanlon’s monthly update expected the state’s Special Transportation Fund would end the fiscal year with a surplus of $208.4 million — an increase of $4.5 million over last month.
The expected General Fund surplus is about $58.2 million smaller than what the office projected last month, continuing a several-month decline since September, when Scanlon’s office projected a General Fund surplus of $390.2 million.
In a press release, the Office of the Comptroller said much of this month’s decline was attributable to last month’s consensus revenue forecast, which reduced expected revenues by a net of $57.1 million.
Connecticut’s finances continued to appear strong despite the reduction, Scanlon said.
“We are still forecasting a surplus, even after Governor Lamont signed the largest income tax cut in the state’s history,” he said. “Heading into 2024, we still have a full Rainy Day Fund at $3.3 billion, and our unemployment rate remains below the national average. These factors put our state in a position to weather potential economic headwinds.”
In a monthly letter to Gov. Ned Lamont, Scanlon said he anticipated that the state’s rainy day fund would have a balance of $3.9 billion by the end of fiscal year 2024.
“To date, over $7 billion from volatile revenue transfers and General Fund surpluses have been used to pay down unfunded pension liability since the inception of the state’s fiscal guardrails,” Scanlon wrote. “The results of which have saved the state hundreds of millions of dollars in future annual debt payments, while guiding the state its continued path of fiscal stability.”
