Latest budget headed for vote

Lawmakers finally reach deal; car tax stays

Forget about relief from car taxes — a late-breaking compromise on the state budget left it by the side of the road Tuesday.

But legislative leaders did agree on a final deal that could end the state’s record 116-day impasse.

As Republican and Democratic caucuses began to review what could be the final version of a budget that could be voted on in the Senate as early as Wednesday, leaders admitted the two-year, $41 billion budget did not yet exist in black and white on a page.

“I think that it is a twostory budget: one of numbers and one of policy,” said Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, during a mid-afternoon news conference. “It not only lays a foundation for future budget negotiations ... But also, in this budget, will be policies that will roll out in the future if we stick with them.”

Fasano believes many of his 18-member caucus in the 36-member Senate would approve the spending plan.

“For the most part, they believe that we have the responsibility to the constituency and to the state as a whole,” he said. “And if if we can’t pass a budget, I doubt very highly that a budget will pass in the Senate without Republican votes.”

Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, said the goal in the final hours of the negotiations late Monday and early Tuesday was to balance the budget that would begin July 1, 2018.

“We began the day, we were approximately $23 million out of balance in the first year, and $77 million in the second year,” Looney said in the afternoon. “Now, of course, everything is being reduced to writing. We’re ready to move forward.”

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who vetoed a Republican

budget plan that won a handful of Democratic votes last month, has complained he hasn’t seen an actual document to review.

Democratic staff briefed Malloy’s staff Tuesday on the highlights.

Under the car-tax proposal, taxes on autos and trucks would be capped at 39 mills in the budget that began July 1, and would increase to 45 mills — $45 on each $1,000 of value — in the second year.

A plan in the tentative framework initially agreed upon last week would have ended car taxes in the second

year, creating a potential $800 million shortfall, with probable higher real estate taxes in towns and cities to make up the difference.

“That’s not expected to be a permanent solution,” Looney said of the car-tax section. “I still support getting rid of the car tax and still view it as a nuisance tax,” Duff added.

After a marathon session of shuttle diplomacy in Capitol meeting rooms that started Monday afternoon, Connecticut’s record impasse finally ended at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Emerging from a House Democratic caucus meeting, the leaders capped their attempt to flesh out the budget framework agreed

upon in principle last week.

“This really has been a historic moment in the state of Connecticut,” said Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin. “Something that people have told me for many years they wanted to see happen, that both parties come together, compromise for the good of the state.”

House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, said that lawmakers were competing against Malloy’s order, which would have sharply cut back spending and municipal aid.

“When you have a governor that is not being helpful and a governor that is not working with us, and a governor that is trying to scare everybody in this state, it is not about working with the bipartisan budget that passed, it was about working from the executive orders, and we had to make sure that those draconian cuts did not continue to go through and continue to hurt our cities and towns, our children, our elderly, et cetera.”