The Mirror’s budget tracker will help you keep track of proposals to cut spending, increase spending or raise taxes and fees – and to help you determine what ultimately gets passed.

This year, state lawmakers will be trying to craft a budget for the next two fiscal years, while grappling with major projected deficits.

As is the case every year, the budgeting process occurs in multiple stages:

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy released his proposed budget Feb. 8.

Now legislators will hold hearings on various elements of his proposal, hearing from both state agency leaders and the public.

Two legislative committees will then release their budget proposals. The Appropriations Committee produces the spending side of the budget, while the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee comes up with a plan to pay for it.

In some years, the minority party releases its own budget proposal as well. Democrats hold majorities on the legislative committees and in the House of Representatives, while the state Senate is evenly divided between the two parties.

Finally, legislators and the Malloy administration negotiate a final budget that gets voted on by the General Assembly.

How to use this tool

The budget tracker will show proposed cuts, spending increases, and cuts or increases to revenues (that is, taxes and fees). Each column represents a different proposal; each line will show a particular budget item. We’ll update this as each proposal comes in.

You can use the search field to find items that cover a particular topic, program or town.



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