Watchdogs up in Connecticut are apparently worried that the state’s “Clean Elections” fund may run dry by the next election cycle in 2014 due to budget cutbacks and several fiscal “raids” on the fund, totaling nearly $59 million, as the state struggles to manage its finances.
According to this report by CT Mirror:
“The combination of the recent cuts to the CEF due to budget deficit mitigation and the high cost of statewide elections makes the task of assessing the long-term sufficiency of the CEF particularly challenging,” the commission wrote in a report to the General Assembly.
“Absent a statutory change, this drastically reduced funding will continue and it is completely foreseeable that this will ultimately result in an insufficiency of the fund.”
Our forthcoming report on the Connecticut program, as well as our previous 2010 report have shown that the program has failed to deliver on its lofty promises. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the state cannot long afford such an expensive mistake. Reports by the GAO in 2003 and 2010 have similarly shown the inefficacy of similar systems in Maine and Arizona.
