Final State Budget Has $83.4 Million Surplus

HARTFORD (AP) — Connecticut’s budget has ended the fiscal year with a surplus of $83.4 million.

State Comptroller Nancy Wyman certified the budget figure on September 2. The $83.4 million is slightly less than the $85 million that the legislative budget office predicted last month, but better than Governor M. Jodi Rell had first projected.

Wyman cited “a late-summer rally in the income tax” collections as the main reason for the surplus.

Budget worries had prompted Rell to limit state spending and impose a hiring freeze.

The money is already being spent — the General Assembly voted late last month to spend part of the surplus for additional heating aid for many state residents, schools, and social service agencies.