State Budget

The day after the annual legislative session ends is typically a time for all sides to declare victory, lament defeat, or spin one into the other. Below, our list of winners and losers from the 2012 session.

Not everything that didn’t get done is dead; legislators are expected to return for a special session in the coming weeks to vote on budget implementation bills that could incorporate proposals that didn’t get through in the regular session.

As the Senate voted 22-13 to give final approval late Tuesday to a revised $20.5 billion budget for next year, both parties saw state finances on the cusp of a major change.

There was no agreement on the nature of that change: Democrats see the budget closing small deficits and preserving vital services until a recovery, while Republicans predict that gimmicks in the plan mean another looming budget crisis.

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After five months of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy insisting that a souring fiscal outlook wouldn't derail one of his biggest campaign promises, the oft-pledged conversion to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles officially landed on the political back-burner early Tuesday.

Both the governor's budget director and the House chairwoman of the legislature's budget-writing panel conceded that the first payment tied to the GAAP conversion was sacrificed to help solve the current budget deficit.

The Senate Thursday overwhelmingly stymied a bid by Connecticut's judges to remove their salaries from political debate, dramatically scaling back a measure on a new judicial compensation study panel.

Senators from both parties said lawmakers should be able to vote on raises, Republican Sen. John Kissel of Enfield, saying, "We have a unique role as a legislature to control the power of the purse."

Key Democratic lawmakers have bristled at the governor's proposal to scale back a Medicaid program that serves some of the poorest adults in Connecticut. But in light of new budget figures released this week showing that the state has a nearly $200 million budget deficit, some said they're willing to consider changes.

Connecticut no longer will be dry on Sunday. With the governor committed to signing the bill into law, the Senate voted 28-6 Tuesday to give final legislative approval to a measure ending the state's longstanding ban on Sunday liquor sales.

One of Connecticut's largest public employee unions is trying to rally support in the waning days of the General Assembly session for a study of whether state government should offer a retirement plan to private citizens.

But a key lawmaker behind the proposal conceded that the chances of passage this year are poor with the legislature scheduled to adjourn in less than two weeks.

The state House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill Thursday legalizing liquor sales on Sundays and holidays starting July 1 and modestly easing liquor price controls -- though far less than proposed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

The measure, which passed 116-27 and now heads to the Senate, creates a new task force to study liquor pricing rules and also increases the number of package stores a permittee may own.

Faltering state income tax revenues left Gov. Dannel P. Malloy reporting his largest budget deficit to date on Friday.

And unless tax receipts reported this week by nonpartisan legislative analysts improve, Malloy's budget plan for next year -- including a state employee pension fund fix and increased education aid to towns -- could be out of balance now and headed for more than $500 million in red ink by 2013-14.