After weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations, state lawmakers were expected to vote Tuesday on reallocating hundreds of millions of dollars in federal fund s for high-priority fiscal items.
The four largest areas of funding are public higher education, children’s mental health, municipal aid, and $50 million for nonprofits that provide state services through contracts that traditionally cost less than those delivered by state employees.
The total allocation is $360 million, but that could be boosted to $400 million if the size of the state budget surplus becomes better than expected as of Oct. 1.
While voting on other bills in an all-day marathon, the state House of Representatives announced at 6 p.m. Monday that the debate would be postponed until Tuesday. Lawmakers are racing toward a deadline of midnight Wednesday for the adjournment of the 2024 regular session.
The package includes an additional $80 million for the University of Connecticut, including an additional $22.3 million for the UConn Health Center in Farmington that would bring its overall total in the category to $48 million for the year for “temporary support,” according to a copy of the bill that was released Monday.
The 350-page bill also calls for an additional $80 million for the Connecticut State University system, which has been lobbying heavily for months for more funding.
In a highly unusual move, the legislature is not reopening the second year of the two-year state budget that provides $26 billion to run the state in the fiscal year that starts on July 1. Instead, they will be reallocating unspent federal funds that the state received during the coronavirus pandemic from the American Rescue Plan Act, known in the common parlance as ARPA.
Lawmakers are planning to create a new “Stabilization Support and ARPA Replacement Fund” that would be held by the state treasurer, separate from other funds.
Regarding children, the spending plan includes $18.8 million for Care4Kids child care for low and moderate-income families, $10 million for children’s behavioral health, and $7 million for urgent crisis centers.
While Democrats said they were simply reallocating unspent federal funds, Republicans had a sharply different view.
House Republican leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford said it is “an easy no vote” for him because of his deep concerns about the fiscal plans and concerns that they might violate the state’s mandated spending cap. Democrats, though, say the federal spending is outside the cap.
“I’m questioning the mental gymnastics, it seems, that the Democrats have gone through to try to convince the state of Connecticut that what they are doing today is not a budget,” Candelora told Capitol reporters. “We received the document at 4:30 a.m. this morning. After going through it, we can clearly see some new appropriations and line items. We see some money defunded and re-appropriated to other priorities. … With all of that, that is a budgetary action, which under our constitution requires us to make sure it’s a balanced budget. … They are lying to themselves that they are not doing a budget. In fact, they are doing a budget.”
Municipal aid
Besides the traditional municipal aid that includes more than $2 billion annually for local schools, the package includes additional municipal aid of $12 million for Danbury, $7 million for Bridgeport, $5.5 million for Waterbury, $5 million for Norwalk, $4 million for New Britain, $2 million for Stamford, and $1.5 million for New Haven.
Other projects include $600,000 for fire hydrant and road improvements in Milford, $250,000 for Clinton town beach, $200,000 for expansion of Charter Oak Park West in Manchester, $300,000 for pickleball courts and clubhouse improvements at the Westwoods recreation complex in Farmington, $300,000 for football and soccer fields in Shelton, $100,000 for Lighthouse Point Park and $50,000 for East Shore Park. The package also covers $400,000 for elevators at the Greenwich Library.
The spending includes $650,000 for climate initiatives, along with money for a wide variety of projects.
Among other items, lawmakers intend to allocate $1.379 million for voting access, $1 million for early voting, and $1 million for legal representation for tenant eviction, among others.
Lamont’s chief spokeswoman, Julia Bergman, said the legislature is continuing progress from the bipartisan budget that was passed last year.
“The governor has been clear that the proposed funding in the ARPA package must go towards one-time expenses and that any discussion of recurring expenses will take place next year when he proposes his budget for fiscal years 2026-27,” Bergman said. “He is proud that Connecticut has passed an honestly balanced budget every year he’s been in office.”
Health care rat
Candelora raised questions about a new provision that volunteer directors of some quasi-public agencies could receive state employee healthcare benefits.
“The earmarks are a little bit flagrant,” Candelora told reporters. “A lot of it is not an open process. To see now that quasi agencies are going to have the carrot of health care benefits to give to their directors because somehow there is this notion that’s going to attract better quality candidates is something that wasn’t vetted through the process. It’s come out of nowhere. It’s an unfortunate rat to see in this document. I guess you’d have to go through the list of directors on those quasi agencies and see which ones might have the authority to get something like that passed in the legislature. I’m not sure who it is.”
A “rat” is a term used by legislators for a narrowly written piece of legislation that is traditionally crafted in the final days of the session for highly connected insiders whose names are not mentioned in the bill. A “rat” often benefits a single person and is purposely buried in a large, complicated bill with the hope that tired legislators will overlook it during the final days of the session. The beneficiary, Republicans say, is often a longtime, well-connected Democrat because the party dominates the legislature and controls the writing of key bills.
In this case, the legislature’s nonpartisan staff says that board members of the Connecticut Port Authority, Connecticut Lottery Corporation, Connecticut Airport Authority, and the State Education Resource Center could “participate in the state employee health insurance plan if they meet certain criteria. For all of these members, the bill limits eligibility to those who are not otherwise eligible to participate in the plan.”
House Speaker Matt Ritter, a Hartford Democrat, said, “I think the thought process is it’s been hard to get good board members on these commissions. This will help attract better talent. … It’s a lot of time. If you look at the Port Authority, for example, that was a lot of time, for many people, frustratingly spent. The hope and the thought is this might get better people willing to do it. For some, it could be a substantial benefit. For some, it might not be necessary. … For some of these folks, they’re working 40, 50 hours a week. … If we’re wrong, we can always relook at it.”
Lamont’s budget team is aware of the issue as it swirled around the Capitol on Monday, and they have concerns about the matter.
Public health initiatives
The package includes $3 million for Planned Parenthood, which House Speaker Matt Ritter of Hartford said would be included.
“I remain a staunchly pro-choice legislator,” Ritter told reporters at the state Capitol.
On other health initiatives, the package calls for $800,000 for school-based health care, $200,000 for the Fair Haven community health center in a low-income section of New Haven, $350,000 for the Cheshire health district, and $10,000 for water testing at the Branford East Shore District health department.
Nonprofits, which have been battling for years at the state Capitol for more funding, were pleased Monday.
“Nonprofit programs have been underfunded for nearly two decades, and this increase is welcome,” said Gian-Carl Case, chief executive officer of the CT Community Nonprofit Alliance. “We also look forward to working with legislative leaders in the 2025 session to enact a much-needed update of the fiscal guardrails that have made this year’s budget process so challenging.”
Overall, the state budget remains in solid shape after years of deficits in the past, which prompted then-Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget director to say in November 2014 that Connecticut was in a state of “permanent fiscal crisis.” He later apologized and said he was referring to a book title.
“This might be the most shocking consensus revenue numbers we’ve seen in years,” Ritter told reporters at the state Capitol. “Positive, yes. Right now, we’re in good times. Yes, it is [Wall Street] money, so we’ll have to continue to talk about that as we go forward. If I hear the word deficit … folks, the state is in a very solid financial position.”
Despite spending hundreds of hours of public hearings and meetings during recent months on the $26 billion state budget for the fiscal year that starts on July 1, the budget will not be formally adjusted. One of the key issues is that lawmakers have little wiggle room as the proposed budget is about $1 million below the mandated spending cap, a tiny percentage of the overall budget.
While many groups would receive increases under the spending plan, advocates said that the 350-page bill would change the law and hurt thousands of low-income disabled patients and older adults by denying them access to Medicaid. The proposed change in the law for HUSKY C recipients would change the income limits as of Oct. 1 and cause them to accumulate higher medical debts or simply not receive medical care because it would be too expensive.
Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com
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