HARTFORD — The June 30 end of the current fiscal year is looming and yet the incredible expanding deficit continues to grow. This week’s figure from the non-partisan Office of Fiscal Analysis is $191 million. Last week, Malloy’s budget agency, the Office of Policy and Management, estimated the deficit at $132.8 million, a hefty hike of $71.6 million in a month. The governor and Benjamin 
Barnes, left, the OPM secretary, promised further rescissions beyond the tens of millions of dollars they have already reduced from the $20-billion budget in recent months.
“Obviously we disagree and stand by the numbers that OPM released last week,” Barnes said in a statement Thursday. “But we have to wait for the April income receipts to get a fuller and more accurate picture of where we stand for the year.”
Minority Republicans today teed off on the growing deficit, pointing out that various reasons cited by the governor, including a lag in federal Medicaid reimbursements, December-holiday sales taxes that failed to meet expectations and a decline in gasoline taxes now lead to a decreasing chance that April tax revenue will help plug the deficit.
“The governor has made nearly $100 million in rescissions in his first two rescissions this year,” said House Minority Leader 
Themis Klarides, R-Derby, (left) during a news conference on election reform. She said that Malloy has regularly rejected chances to meet minority lawmakers to meet and discuss compromise spending reductions. “Hoping and dealing with reality are two different things,” she said. “We cannot make budgets and policy for the state based on hope. Unfortunately only Gov. Malloy and Ben Barnes are the two people who believe ‘it’ll be more next month, don’t worry.'”
“Conversation costs nothing, ” said Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano. “So why wouldn’t you do it?” He said that House and Senate Democrats have also not responded. He said the issue of the deficit and the plans for the budget that starts July 1, have been handled childishly. “Why does there have to be this great divide between Republicans and Democrats? It doesn’t serve this state well. It hasn’t served this state well.”
Mark Ojakian, Malloy’s chief-of-staff, teed off: “The only thing that’s childish is the comedy show of the GOP. Can they really say they’re doing their jobs as legislators if they haven’t put out a budget of their own? They say they have ideas – are they secret ideas? Apparently press releases are the only thing they’re able to put down on paper, so until they publicly release a real, detailed budget of their own, they can’t be taken seriously.”