Yep, now its official, Connecticut is in a budget deficit. Of course, if they had acknowledged factoring unfunded pension liabilities all along, Connecticut has been operating with a budget deficit for years. But details are something Hartford’s government flunkies don’t do all that well. The local impact of the red state phenom below:

The rapidly changing budget landscape has left many local lawmakers frustrated.

State Rep. Christopher Perone, D-Norwalk, had been pushing for the elimination of the annual $250 business entity tax to give small firms a break in a tough economy.

“It doesn’t look good for that,” he said.

A chart, ye gads, now I have something to rant about! And let’s start with this 1 through 6 listing of the 10 largest cities in Connecticut.

10 largest cities (2005 est.):

1. Bridgeport, 139,008

2. New Haven, 124,791

3. Hartford, 124,397

4. Stamford, 120,045

5. Waterbury, 107,902

6. Norwalk, 84,437

7. Danbury, 78,736

8. New Britain, 71,254

9. Bristol, 61,353

10. Meriden, 59,653

And now let’s look at the same list but by proposed 2009 “do nothing” budget spending from Hartford.

Fresh from the fields of finance, the operating budget. Overall a B+. The members of the BET, Common Council and BOE deserve some kudos for keeping the budget within the umbrella of inflation. That’s been no easy feat considering revenues these days are somewhat precarious. So the Hour identifies the following:

Look for several more police officers and firefighters, but otherwise restrained spending in the $273.7-million operating budget headed toward adoption by the Board of Estimate and Taxation.

On May 5, the Board of Estimate is set to adopt the city’s 2008-09 operating budget.

Tonight the ordinance committee will consider adopting some sort of path to getting the BOE to meet on a regular basis. This was the idea behind the movement last year, which resulted in … no meetings. Mostly due to Corda being unavailable. Alexandra Fenwick reports:

A Common Council committee tonight will consider whether to create a joint panel with the school board to improve communication.

Better cooperation is a perennial topic that tends to come up at the end of budget season.

Last night I attended the Republican open meeting. It was well attended by a mix of the old, ruh-roh some may take offense to that, and the new. The new people were the focus of course, since registration in the Republican party has been declining in Norwalk for a number of years. It’s not much help that the national field of Republican flavor is so inexcusable. But like Christine Todd Whitman has said, it’s my party too.

But wait there’s news out there. But a tight schedule reduces me to provide this hillarious youtube clip instead:

More news later, and stay off the crime.

From a press release:

The Norwalk Historical Society is pleased to announce a Militia Muster Weekend on Saturday, May 3 from 10 – 4 and Sunday, May 4 from 12 – 4.   Featuring the recreated 5th Connecticut Regiment, this event is for the entire family and will be held at Mill Hill Historic Park, 2 East Wall Street (at the corner of East Avenue).  There is no admission fee, but donations will be gratefully accepted.

Not much else in the news today, so today’s musical guest is Garbage, and today’s video clip from youtube. The comments as always are yours for the commenting, unless its about crime. Today I will delete any reference to crime in this thread.

The Republicans in Wilton have announced that Susan Bruschi plans to run for the open state rep  seat in the 143rd. Norwalk apparently an afterthought, especially reading this:

Blocking the controversial Super 7 highway that would extend the Route 7 connector to Danbury and improving service on Metro-North Railroad’s Danbury Branch are among Bruschi’s top priorities, she sad, as are keeping taxes and government spending to a minimum.

What’s not to love about setting a ballet to the Pixies’ Where is my mind?