STATE OF CONNECTICUT
NANCY WYMAN COMPTROLLER	OFFICE OF THE STATE COMPTROLLER 55 ELM STREET HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT 06106-1775	MARK OJAKIAN DEPUTY COMPTROLLER

State Comptroller Nancy Wyman today projected that the state will end the 2000 fiscal year with a budget surplus of $245.2 million, driven by healthy tax revenues produced by growth in jobs, wages and capital gains.

Connecticut added approximately 4,400 jobs last December for a year-end total of 22,900 new jobs, Wyman said. Most of the job gains were in the construction and service sectors.

The state's low 2.7 percent unemployment rate also forced upward pressure on weekly and hourly wages, which showed historically high advances of more than six percent in 1999.

"In addition to the strong gains in jobs and wages, Connecticut residents also are realizing extraordinary earnings from capital gains," Wyman said. "My surplus projection is based on the expectation that we will continue to see this kind of growth continue in the second half of the fiscal year."

Wyman's surplus estimate is about $5 million higher than last month's, mainly due to continued rising revenues from the income and sales taxes associated with the overall economic growth. The income tax will produce about $140.4 million more than originally expected and the sales tax will close the year about $31.4 million higher.

Combined, the two taxes will produce more than $7 billion by the end of the fiscal year on June 30, Wyman said.

Wyman also noted that after seven years of decline, real median household income in Connecticut has begun to rise over the last two years and is now growing faster than the national average.

When adjusted for inflation, however, the state's household income has actually declined 15.7 percent from its peak level of $52,764 in 1989. The real median household income for 1998, the latest figure available, was $45,589.

Wyman said the shift can be partly be explained by the state's loss of high-paying manufacturing jobs, which paid nearly 30 percent higher than the jobs that replaced them.

The State Comptroller appreciates input on this and other issues from residents of the state. Please feel free to contact her office by phone - (860) 702-3300; mail - OSC, 55 Elm Street, Hartford, CT 06106; or, via E-mail - osc.opinions@po.state.ct.us

Learn more about the Connecticut Comptroller's Office by calling up our Internet Home Page, at the link below.

Back to Comptroller's Home Page
Back to Index of Comptroller's Press Releases