State Sen. and President Pro Tem Martin Looney.
New Haven’s state legislators gathered at City Hall Wednesday to celebrate a $23 million surge in state aid to New Haven — while cautioning that most of these funds are one-time boosts.
They also heralded State Sen. Martin Looney’s career in public service, which will soon conclude after 46 years now that the senate president has announced that he won’t be running for reelection.
The New Haven state lawmakers who convened for a press conference at City Hall included Looney and State Reps. Pat Dillon, Toni Walker, Roland Lemar, Al Paolillo, Jr., and Steve Winter. They joined Mayor Justin Elicker and New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) Supt. Madeline Negrón to speak about those millions of dollars coming to the city.
“Our state delegation knew the stakes and delivered,” Elicker said.
The funds include $23 million in additional state aid to the city, largely made up of $12.4 million from the Mashantucket Pequot/Mohegan Fund, $2 million in Municipal Grants-in-Aid funding, and $7.6 million in supplemental education funding. The city will also be receiving an additional almost $4 million thanks to an increase Pilot In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) funding.
Those funds, Elicker said, are “desperately needed.”
Thanks to the increased state aid, Elicker has submitted an amendment to the Board of Alders regarding his proposed Fiscal Year 2026-27 (FY27) budget that would direct $13.9 million more to the city’s schools, on top of his already proposed increase of $5 million. If alders approve the budget, that would bring the Board of Education’s funding up to $232 million for Fiscal Year 2026-27. (Negrón had proposed a $252 million budget.)
Negrón thanked the delegation on behalf of NHPS and said that the increased funding would allow NHPS to protect staffing, core instruction, career pathways, intervention strategies, arts, athletics, and its team that works to address chronic absenteeism and keep students in school.
“We would have been left scrambling once again like we did last year, to think about how many positions we were going to have to be cutting,” she said, if those extra funds had not been secured.
But while schools will be able to “breathe” a little, these are one-time funds, a point emphasized by Negrón and state lawmakers.
“The work is not done,” Dillon said.
Negrón said she is looking forward to continued advocacy for the state to adjust the Education Cost-Sharing (ECS) formula, which would increase the per-pupil funding municipalities receive. Negrón also said that the Board of Education will have to continue to find places in its budget where funding can be used more efficiently, especially in transportation.
Right now, she said, the school board is looking at what an “opt-in” method would look like, as NHPS currently busses all students, even though not all of them ride the bus.
Elicker said that he has been meeting with the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, whose members agree that the state will need to continue to increase its school funding as costs keep rising. He also said he’s going to serve as a member of Gov. Ned Lamont’s Blue-Ribbon Commission, which is tasked with reforming school-funding methods.
“I plan on playing an active role there,” he said.
Looney, meanwhile, said that longterm, the state will have to make progress with significant tax reform. “We need to be able to tax the wealthiest people in this state at more than 6.99 percent or to have a separate tax and capital gains,” which would help relieve lower- and middle-class people from their high property taxes.
Still, the air at Wednesday’s press conference was cheerful. “It was a good session because time pressure was on from the very beginning,” Looney said, allowing legislators to negotiate with the governor on urban aid. “We took on a much more ambitious agenda than is normally the case” in the second year of the state’s two-year budget cycle.
“It may be one-time funding, but we’re going to continue working in the direction that everybody wants us to go,” promised Walker.
Other bills passed on behalf of New Haven that were celebrated at Wednesday’s presser include “new accountability and enforcement tools to regulate under-aged Juice Bars (HB 5222); the extension of the city’s microtransit rideshare pilot program (SB 9); new funds and community improvements for the East Shore neighborhood related to the proposed new terminal at Tweed-New Haven Airport (SB 1); the strengthening of municipal zoning laws and fines to help ensure the proper use of properties (HB 5391); and new protections for residents from illegal actions by ICE agents (SB 397); and more,” according to a press release sent out by city spokesperson Lenny Speiller.
“Passionate, Principled, Pragmatic, Progressive”
Now that Looney has wrapped up his last legislative session as a member of the Connecticut General Assembly, his New Haven colleagues commemorated the dean of their delegation’s leadership, even getting emotional up at times.
“No one has ever worked harder or delivered more,” Elicker said. “He is passionate, principled, pragmatic, progressive.”
“He’s always there with ideas no one’s thought of,” said Walker. “He sits quietly in his chair, and he waits so all of us say our little chatters, and then he says, ‘Now, this is the best thing that I think should happen.’ And then we get a baseball story after that.”
“Looney has been a remarkable person to follow,” said Lemar. “His diligence, commitment, honor, respect, his willingness to step forward on times where we’re lacking voice, where we think we may have lost the fight.”
Paolillo, who has announced that he intends to run for Looney’s senate seat, said, “No one can succeed you.”
“You’ve been a mentor and a friend to all of us in the delegation, and we’re so fortunate to have you here in the city,” he continued. “Your leadership has us here today.”
“It really takes somebody who can consider the smallest minutia, but also think about what do we need to do to meet the needs of the people, and I just think that that is so exemplified by Senator Looney and by the whole team here,” said Winter.
Looney himself said that “it has been a great honor,” and in the words of his law partner Jack Keyes, “It’s better to jump before you’re pushed.”
He intends to teach part-time as an adjunct professor at different universities, continue working at his law practice, and volunteering.
State Rep. Al Paolillo, Jr., who is running for Looney’s vacant senate seat.
State Rep. Toni Walker and Looney.
Supt. Madeline Negrón: The work continues.
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