by John Ferraro and Hudson Kamphausen CTNewsJunkie
HARTFORD, CT – House Republicans made a late-session push Thursday to reopen the state budget to increase local education funding, including more for special education, while cutting items such as free healthcare for some undocumented immigrants.
The plan met with immediate skepticism from Democratic leaders in the House, with Speaker Matt Ritter saying that while his caucus will examine the GOP proposal it will be “difficult” to reopen the budget at this point.
Local education spending would increase by $300 million for fiscal 2025 under the Republican plan, said Rep. Tammy Nuccio, R-Tolland, the main architect of the proposal. Of that, $60 million would be an increase from what is in the current $25.9 billion budget.
The 8.2% increase in education funding – focused on special education, vocational-agriculture, charter schools and magnet schools – would help municipalities keep property taxes down, said Nuccio.
Increased spending for the Birth-to-Three program and for funds to pay for teacher retirements are part of the plan.
But aspects such as the cuts to healthcare plans for undocumented immigrants were panned by leading Democrats. Those cuts would affect children up to 15 and undocumented individuals receiving postpartum care, Republicans said.
“I think that’s a misguided suggestion,” House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, said, adding that healthcare costs for undocumented immigrants will get paid for in other ways, such as the use of emergency rooms for primary care.
“I think ethically, and as a human, these are people that need healthcare,” the majority leader added.
With the end of the session approaching, leadership in the legislature is working feverishly to secure the necessary funds for additional prioritized spending. Still, there are some apparent disconnects between Democrats and Republicans on how much money there is, and where it’s coming from.
Ritter said Wednesday morning that the state has about $300-$400 million available for additional spending. While the majority of that is money left over from the federal American Rescue Plan Act, some in the legislature think that it will end up being bonded funds.
House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora said Wednesday that there is only about $58 million left in ARPA funds to be spent, and that a large portion of the additional spending will be bonded.
“It’s not money that’s left over, it’s money that they’re generating by shifting those programs onto the state’s credit card,” he said.
Candelora said he is concerned about the fiscal guardrails being disregarded, and that the governor is “sticking his head in the sand” when it comes to issues of budgeting additional spending within the spending cap.
“The reality is, the budget this year is $30 million over the spending cap,” he said Wednesday.
Candelora reiterated those concerns during the Republicans unveiling of their own budget adjustments, and said that he wanted to keep budgetary formulation out of the executive branch.
“We don’t want to put it in the hands of the governor. We believe it is our duty as a legislature to put forth a balanced budget,” Candelora said.
Chris Collibee, budget spokesperson for Gov. Ned Lamont, said in a statement that the governor’s office appreciated House Republicans’ efforts in putting forth their own budget.
“While we may not agree with all of the adjustments that House Republicans have proposed, the legislature has signaled that it will maintain the adopted budget for FY 2025 without revision. To that end, we are working with legislative leadership to address resources for priorities in the coming year while maintaining adherence to the Governor’s commitment to an honestly balanced budget,” his statement read.
Both Ritter and Senate President Martin Looney said this week that the conversations with the governor’s office are progressing, and that the legislature and the governor seem to be near the same page regarding the spending of additional funds.
Ritter and Looney have both advocated for a looser interpretation of the spending cap, with Ritter saying that funding additional projects like mental health services for children and providing aid to municipalities remain a priority.
Looney said that it hasn’t been determined how much of the additional spending package will be bonded, but that the largest portion of the package will be ARPA.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The original version of this story misreported that House Republicans had not provided a budget total with their proposal. The proposal’s bottom line for appropriations was $26,030,147,171 on an available revenue total of $26,074,050,000.
