Malloy Wants to Lift Connecticut's Budget Spending Cap

This article was posted by Daniel DeBlasio. It was written by Corey Fyke.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy wants to outspend the state's budget cap, possibly by more than $1.1 billion in the next two years. 

The constitutional budget cap was enacted by the state in 1991 to quell concerns about Connecticut's new income tax. But former Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell got legislative approval to extend the cap twice to get her budgets passed, according to a report on the Connecticut Mirror. 

In order to get his $43.8 billion, two-year state budget through the legislature this spring, Malloy needs the General Assembly's permission to extend the cap by $466 million in the 2013-3014 fiscal year and by $691 million the year after, the Mirror reports. 

Malloy will need 22 votes in the state Senate, votes that he apparently doesn't have, according to the Hartford Courant. The negotiations on the cap, the newspaper says, is giving unusual power to some swing vote senators.