Will Legislators Go Along With Ending Accounting Gimmicks?

While Gov. Dan Malloy used his first executive order Wednesday to begin whipping Connecticut's finances into shape, state legislators warned they aren't ready to go cold turkey when it comes to budget gimmicks.

And though Malloy kept a campaign pledge to begin the conversion to generally accepted accounting principles on Day One, he stretched that promise by giving his budget staff an extra two months to develop a plan.

State government's historic fiscal crisis has been "coddled by a habit of political sugarcoating that has passed our problems onto the next generation," Malloy said Wednesday during his inaugural address. "Well, ladies and gentlemen, the next generation is here."

The legislature initially mandated GAAP conversion in 1993--and has postponed it repeatedly since rather than swear off an array of fiscal gimmicks that has enabled it to balance budget after budget with hundreds of millions of dollars in phantom savings and creative accounting moves.

According to the Government Accounting Standards Board, adherence to GAAP means following a series of common financial guidelines--already imposed on Connecticut cities and towns--that emphasize transparency.

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