Squandered surplus: CT spent more than it saved the last time revenues boomed

In the five fiscal years preceding the Great Recession, from 2004 through 2008, Connecticut built a nearly $1.4 billion rainy day fund, which proved to be far too meager and led to major state tax hikes in 2009 and 2011. But legislators and then-Gov. M. Jodi Rell passed up a chance to save much more, spending almost $2 in potential surplus for every $1 they saved. Advocates for Connecticut's current system of budget controls fear current officials haven't learned from past mistakes.