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 the state will end the 2010 fiscal year with a budget deficit of $549 million, citing a continued decline in receipts of the income and sales taxes.

Wyman's deficit figure is lower than last month's by about $75 million, mainly due to the cancellation of a planned sales-tax decrease of one-half percent. If enacted as planned, that reduction would have resulted in a revenue loss of about $129 million this year.

Wyman said receipts of the income tax remain weak, despite an increase in the tax rate for upper-income residents. Collection of the quarterly estimated income tax payments typically made by investors is down by nearly 29.4 percent, Wyman said, and revenue from the payroll-withholding tax dropped by 4.3 percent.

The state added 1,000 payroll jobs in October, Wyman said, but still has lost more than 70,000 jobs since October 2008.

"The extra revenue associated with the higher tax rate is being offset by a continued drop in overall receipts of the income tax," Wyman said.

Wyman said the income tax was originally projected to produce about $6.6 billion by the end of the fiscal year on June 30, but is now expected to bring in about $6.4 billion.

The sales tax is now targeted to produce about $3.1 billion in revenue, or about $27 million less than budgeted.

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