More than 60% of likely Connecticut voters would modify the state’s savings programs to spend more on human services, health care and education while still paying down state pension debt faster than the required pace, according to a new poll released Wednesday from private, nonprofit social service agencies. The survey, conducted by San Francisco-based Change Research, also found 68% of likely voters support scaling back state savings programs to boost funding for the community-based nonprofits that deliver the bulk of state-sponsored social services for people with disabilities and patients struggling with addiction or mental illness. The chief engine of those surpluses is a program that allows lawmakers to spend only a portion of quarterly income and business tax receipts on the assumption those revenues fluctuate too much year-by-year. But critics say this “volatility adjustment” is calibrated too poorly and takes a huge chunk of funding out of the budget every year.
https://ctmirror.org/2024/07/31/ct-budget-save-spend-poll/