Huge State Surplus...

According to an August 7, 2006 New Haven Register editorial, the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2006 has officially been ended with $940.5 million surplus (nearly $1 billion - wow.).

Over 1/4 ($245.6 million) will go to fully fund the Teacher's Retirement Fund for both this year and next.

$85.3 million will pay off debt from 2002-2003 that was used to balance a budget deficit. That budget year, the rainy day fund (the contingency fund, aka budget reserve) was entirely emptied.

This year, almost $455.1 million will be put INTO the rainy day fund (largest deposit EVER), which will make the balance of the fund $1.12 billion.

It wasn't disclosed what the remaining $154.4 million will be earmarked for.

While the editorial warns against feeling secure because economic times are due to change -- but this is a ton of tax revenue that the state has received... out of our pockets.

Wouldn't it be ideal if the state would decide what portion of the unaccounted for $154.4 million proportionally should be allocated to West Haven taxpayers and helped us out?

According to census.gov, in 2005, West Haven has an estimated population of 52,923 and Connecticut has an estimated population of 3,510,297 or roughly 1.5% of the population of the state of Connecticut.... 1.5% of the $154.4 million is $2.33 million - while it wouldn't solve all of our problems, that would be a nice start to help our budget crisis.