Democrats' Open Budget Law Might Bite Them In Election Year

A controversial system for exposing state budget deficits that the Democrat-controlled legislature forced on Gov. M. Jodi Rell last year could come back to bite Democrats this fall - less than three weeks before Election Day.

Commonly known as the "consensus revenue" law, the statute requires the legislature's nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis and the governor's budget staff to issue new revenue projections for the current and next four fiscal years on Oct. 15.

Now,  with hundreds of millions of dollars in anticipated federal aid stalled on Capitol Hill, and with the stock market having plunged more than 1,000 points below the level state analysts used to forecast a modest recovery back in early May, Republicans hope the mid-October report could be a major political embarrassment for Democrats at the worst possible time. 

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