Connecticut Budget Passes House, Senate Without Retail Auction of Standard Service Customers

The Connecticut House and Senate have now both passed the state's budget bill and have excluded a retail auction of Standard Service customers as part of the budget.

The introduction of Keno and other sources are making up the $80 million revenue that was originally projected to be raised by the retail auction.

Opposition of consumer groups, in particular, led to the late exclusion of the auction from the final budget and use of alternate sources of revenues.

The budget awaits the Governor's signature, and while not final, the retail auction is for all purposes dead. Still, Matters will wait until a signed budget is available before doing a complete post-mortem on the auction, whose failure will reverberate to other states and markets.