New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Feds giving Conn. $107M for in-school COVID testing
WASHINGTON — Connecticut will receive $107 million in new federal funding to increase coronavirus testing in public K-12 schools, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Wednesday, as the Biden administration floods schools with money in an effort to restart classroom learning across the country.
The new testing money will flow to the state Department of Public Health by early April, but information was not available Wednesday on how it will then be used or distributed to individual school districts.
The testing money comes on top of more than $1.1 billion that the U.S. Department of Education is sending to Connecticut primary and secondary schools to push school reopening. It’s part of billions in federal relief money flowing to the state from the American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package that President Joe Biden signed into law last week.
“These funds from the American Rescue Plan and the extraordinary steps the Department is taking to get these resources to states quickly will allow schools to invest in mitigation strategies to get students back in the classroom and stay there, and address the many impacts this pandemic has had on students — especially those disproportionately impacted by the pandemic,” U.S. Secretary of Education and former Connecticut Commissioner of Education Miguel Cardona said.
As of March 8, about 61 percent of Connecticut schools are teaching fully in-person, said Peter Yazbak, director of communications for the state Department of Education.
At least a few Connecticut school districts including Middletown and East Haven have offered some coronavirus testing on site, but it’s unclear how widely available COVID-19 testing is at public schools in the state. The Department of Education referred questions on the subject to the Department of Public Health, which did not answer. The Connecticut Education Association, the state’s teacher’s union, also did not have data to share.
The Connecticut Education Association has called
for all schools, with state assistance, to provide regular COVID-19 testing of students and staff to check for both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases.
Teachers and school staff have been able to get priority access to other coronavirus testing sites in Connecticut through an initiative set up by the state.
Biden has set a goal of having a majority of schools reopen for in-person learning five days a week by April 30, Biden’s 100th day in office.
To help schools reopen, fight learning loss and shoulder other new expenses, the American Rescue Plan is pumping an unprecedented amount of money
into public schools using Title I, a formula that supports schools educating low-income students. Biden has encouraged states to prioritize vaccinating teachers and school staff, which Connecticut has done.
The CDC has issued new guidance for school reopening and is re-evaluating whether three feet of physical distancing — not six — might be sufficient in schools when all students are masked. The CDC is promoting and funding increased coronavirus testing in schools as one strategy to help more classrooms stay open.
In addition to ensuring diagnostic testing of symptomatic and exposed individuals, serial screening testing will help schools identify infected individuals without symptoms who may be contagious so that prompt action can be taken to prevent further transmission, the CDC said announcing the new funding awards Wednesday.
“We know that testing works. We know that it works to identify cases and slow the spread of COVID,” said Carole Johnson, White House coronavirus testing coordinator. “We look forward to working with schools to implement this exciting new program.”
Cardona visited a Meriden elementary school in early March with first lady Jill Biden to highlight strategies helping schools teach safely during the pandemic.
Gov. Ned Lamont’s new plan for rebuilding Connecticut’s sagging unemployment fund would require bigger businesses to pay a larger share, with increased tax relief for many smaller businesses.
It would also sharply reduce the number of people who can draw unemployment benefits while receiving severance payments after losing their jobs.
On Wednesday, the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee discussed how to rebuild Connecticut’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, which the state drained during the COVID-19 pandemic by paying out benefits across 1.4 million claims over the past 12 months.
After blowing through $7.5 billion over 12 months paying out jobless benefits, Lamont wants to rebuild the fund through changes that would have bigger businesses paying a larger share — with many small businesses to see their taxes cut if the Connecticut General Assembly adopts the recommendations.
Lamont wants to expand the “taxable wage base” cap used to compute trust fund contributions. The governor’s policy director Jonny Dach told legislators on Wednesday that would shift some of the burden of rebuilding the fund from the backs of small businesses to larger employers picking up more of the tab.
Restaurants alone, Dach said, would shave 35 percent on average off their unemployment insurance taxes.
The Connecticut Department of Labor lists some 580,000 people by Social Security number who have received unemployment benefits, with an unspecified number having cycled on and off assistance as dictated by repeat interruptions in their regular work income.
The DOL has taken out $635 million in federal loans to date to continue paying benefits to state residents, with more than 200,000 receiving assistance as of this week.
Dach described Connecticut as “bottom of the barrel” nationally as of January 2020 with regard to the solvency of its Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, even after 10 “pretty good years” of contributions after the 2009 recession. It took Connecticut six years to repay the $1.25 billion it borrowed after the Great Recession, including interest of $85 million it incurred.
“The program has to be funded — there’s no such thing as a free lunch,” Dach said. “If you pay out a dollar in benefit, it means you are going to collect that dollar at some point from the employers.”
Tinkering with benefits
But a freebie was served up for one group during the pandemic — independent workers who under preexisting federal law do not have to pay unemployment insurance taxes.
Those earners were allowed to draw benefits for the first time under last year’s Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, which sought to ease the shock to the U.S. economy caused by mass business closures. As of mid-February, the U.S. Department of Labor reported more than 38,000 independent workers in Connecticut receiving unemployment benefits.
Across the board, Connecticut claimants are able to draw a maximum $667 weekly benefit at present, with the CARES Act authorizing a $600 “plus-up” for stretches of 2020 that has since been reduced to $300 through this August.
Dach said both fund solvency and commonsense were behind the proposed rule that would prevent people putting in for unemployment benefits until after they clear their severance schedules, saving the state an estimated $50 million annually on average.
“I don’t think people have an expectation that they will be able to get more than their initial base salary in a week because they are drawing severance and [unemployment benefits] at the same time,” Dach said. “No one who has lost their job is well off — but if we have to restore solvency to the fund by tinkering with benefits for some of them, I think that’s a reasonable place to start.”
A lobbyist with the Connecticut Business & Industry Association testified Wednesday that CBIA members want benefits reform to be the priority.
CBIA’s Eric Gjede said the state was making progress toward achieving trust fund solvency but that the pandemic torpedoed that progress. Among other points, CBIA wants to raise the minimum earnings threshold at which individuals could apply.
“It is intended for those who become unemployed through no fault of their own — but in order to get benefits, you need to have demonstrated a reasonable ‘attachment’ to the workforce,” Gjede said. “Working one full week in the entire year is not a reasonable attachment to the workforce . ...
We’ve got to make sure that those workers that are getting these benefits have demonstrated that they want to work. Other programs [exist] for those who cannot work.”
The COVID-19 experience
Under Lamont’s proposed formula, smaller businesses that rely on seasonal workers who file for unemployment more frequently would likely see no reduction in amounts owed.
Tammy Nuccio, R-Tolland, said that any legislation needs to limit the exposure of small businesses that saw large numbers of people go on unemployment after they were forced to close under executive orders last year by Gov. Ned Lamont, impacting the “experiencing rating” scale that determines their contributions owed.
“That’s what I’m hearing from all my small businesses — that the ‘experience rating’ part is going to kill them, and it’s the COVIDrelated experience rating,” Nuccio said Wednesday. “They were mandated to close ... [but] they wouldn’t have closed on their own.”
Dach said the administration hopes the Connecticut General Assembly will address that scenario via separate legislation before the Labor and Public Employees Committee.
David Lehman, Lamont’s commissioner leading the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development said getting the fund onto solid footing will benefit “substantially all” Connecticut businesses, but particularly smaller enterprises.
“The taxable wage base ... has been stagnant too long — not even indexed with inflation,” Lehman said Wednesday. “This is a terribly regressive tax that needs to be addressed.”
NEW HAVEN — Tweed New Haven Regional Airport has begun seeking a consultant to prepare an environmental analysis to ensure that any future development stemming from the airport’s 20-year master plan update is “undertaken in an environmentally responsible manner,” according to the airport authority.
The announcement marks the beginning of the environmental review process that must take place before any changes recommended by the new master plan, including lengthening the 5,600-foot main runway by 1,035 feet or building a new terminal and airport entrance on the East Haven side of the airport, can take place.
The airport issued a request for qualifications to potential bidders interested in performing the analysis, which is governed by National Environmental Policy Act standards and is required by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The full RFQ may be viewed at https://bit.ly/30SiDvA.
“Today marks another important step in the revitalization of Tweed-New Haven, as we ensure that any future changes at the airport can only be undertaken in a sustainable, environmentally-friendly manner,” said Tweed New Haven
Airport Authority Executive Director Sean Scanlon in a statement.
Prior to issuing the RFQ, Tweed also submitted updates to its federally-mandated master plan to the FAA, Scanlon said.
The updates were presented at a public hearing last week.
They include proposals to extend the main runway from 5,600 feet to 6,635 feet, build a new airport terminal on the East Haven side of the airport, and move the approach and entrance to Tweed from Townsend Avenue and Burr Street in New Haven to Hemingway Avenue and Proto Drive in East Haven.
“I want to thank all the members of the public who participated in the master plan process,” Scanlon said. “Public input is critical to airport development, and the environmental analysis will be equally collaborative and transparent.
“I look forward to continued open communication with Tweed’s neighboring residents, businesses, and elected officials as we explore how best to position Tweed as an employer and economic driver for the region,” he said.
Tweed has set an April 5 deadline to receive responses to the RFQ. The timeline to complete the environment analysis process is about six months after a vendor is selected. Similar to the master plan update process, the public will have the opportunity to provide feedback and ask questions as the environmental analysis is being done.
Tweed New Haven’s updated master plan, as well as supporting information and background, can be viewed online at TweedMasterPlan.com. Comments or concerns may be emailed to HVNMasterPlan@mjinc.com.
The airport is owned by New Haven but straddles the New Haven-East Haven border, with much of its private aviation side — plus the proposed new terminal and entrance locations — located in the town.
Since Tweed first opened in 1931, the main entrance has been on Burr Street, accessible by narrow residential streets off Townsend Avenue on New Haven’s East Shore.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the airport briefly lost service from its one commercial airline, American. American formerly offered multiple flights a day to Philadelphia and one flight a week to Charlotte, N.C. It ceased serving Tweed for about a month before the last stimulus bill resulted in the airline restoring flights to Philadelphia.