There was more to like than not to like in the two-year budget plan unveiled by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Wednesday, a document in which campaign promises collide with fiscal realities. The Office of Fiscal Analysis estimated that if nothing changed, Connecticut would face deficits of $1.3 billion in fiscal year 2015-16 and $1.4 billion in the following year.

To close that gap, the governor is asking the legislature to abandon tax cuts that he earlier signed into law and were to begin over the next two years. He plans to continue trimming the state labor force through attrition. He also wants to slap another tax on hospitals, already reeling from his past fiscal policies.

So what's to like?

The proposed growth rates of 3.3 percent in the first year and 3.1 percent in year two are austere, considering that the state faces big increases in major fixed costs. Fringe benefits, including employee and retiree health care pensions, will grow by 9.8 percent and debt service by 7.7 percent. Remove those and the growth in Gov. Malloy's budget proposal is a reasonable 2.4 percent in each of the next two years, far below the trends of the past 10 years.

Gimmicks are fewer with only 1.3 percent of the budget dependent on one-time revenue sources, as compared to 13.4 percent in the year before Gov. Malloy first took office.

By using attrition to gradually reduce the state labor force, the budget would avoid unemployment and other severance expenses associated with layoffs.

The governor also smartly rejects offering early retirement incentives, which produce short-term savings but end up costing the state far more in the end.

The governor's budget proposal flat-funds municipal aid and keeps the state commitments to funding public education. Beginning his second term, Gov. Malloy deserves credit for having resisted the temptation to solve his own budget problems by transferring them to towns and cities via reductions in aid.

We like his plans aimed at keeping more criminals who are non-violent out of prison, always the most expensive option. He also proposed programs intended to increase the chances that ex-inmates will again become productive members of the community, rather than recirculating through the prison system.

This "Second Chance Society" initiative includes adding members to the Pardons and Paroles Board to hear more requests; expanding use of house arrest as an alternative to prison; and improving collaboration among agencies to aid re-entry from the penal system back to the community.

With crime rates down and the prison population continuing to decline, the governor expects savings from a prison closing.

Finally, Gov. Malloy is right in calling for a major state commitment to improve the state's transportation infrastructure.

"Our ability to be prosperous ? will be jeopardized" without such an initiative, said Ben Barnes, secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, in briefing reporters about the budget. That assessment is on target.

But transportation is also on the list of things not to like. The governor proposes a 30-year, $100 billion transportation initiative, including a $10 billion investment in state and federal funds over the next five years, but only spells out the funding through fiscal year 2017. After that, Mr. Barnes said, the cost of the transportation initiative outstrips the revenues produced by the gas tax that would be used to pay for it.

Unable to produce a plan to pay for the undertaking, the governor retreated to the frequent fallback of politicians - he called for forming a commission to figure it out.

Also disappointing was the governor's call to abandon the bulk of $550 million in promised tax cuts over the next two years that the governor had earlier signed into law, but that were conveniently delayed until after the election. As the Connecticut Mirror reported, Gov. Malloy's budget would renege on $448 million of those cuts.

This governor and legislature - meaning the Democrats in control - should end the practice of promising tax cuts down the road. Impose them immediately or don't bother.

Gov. Malloy does call for a small reduction in the sales tax and eliminating the Business Entity Tax, a minor tax at $250 every couple of years, but an annoying one. However, those cuts are small compared to the abandoned tax relief.

Hospitals would be hit with another $340 million in taxes over the next two years, a move the administration said would leverage $200 million in federal aid, with the funds returned to the hospitals.

The administration broke the same promise in the past and the legislature should reject the idea unless there are ironclad assurances to protect the hospitals.

In summation, the governor's spending proposal is a flawed but serious document. Now the hard work of the legislature in improving it begins.