The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Parties tangle over state budget
Democrats and Republicans pitched two dramatically different visions on Friday for how the state should spend a nearly $20 billion state budget in fiscal year 2019.
As the state looks toward billions in future deficits, small windfalls in recent months — mostly due to one-time revenues — had both parties considering higher spending in some areas. But how and where they directed funding diverged greatly.
Democrats suggested increasing gross state spending by $146 million over the more restrained, revised budget proposed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in February.
“We should be creating a budget that creates hope and opportunities for all people in Connecticut,” said Rep. Toni Walker, D-New Haven, chair of the Legislature’s appropriations committee.
The Democrat’s biggest increase is nearly $100 million more in education funding. Their budget would launch a “Free 2 Start” program that aims for free college tuition to all Connecticut students at state universities and colleges. Funding in fiscal 2019 provides tuition for 3,200 incoming college freshman.
Their plan also eliminates transportation rate hikes and keeps bus and train services at
current levels. It funds $4.3 billion in road projects, which will help economic development and maintain jobs for construction workers, Democrats said. Meanwhile, it keeps the statewide car tax mill rate topped at 45.
After contentious debate, the Legislature’s budget committee voted Friday afternoon to send the Democratic budget to the House floor in a party line vote. Only House members were permitted to vote on the proposal.
Future passage of the Democrat’s plan may be rocky. Sen. Gayle Slossberg, D-Milford, said she might vote against her party's proposal in the hopes of arriving at a bipartisan budget, like that passed in October.
Republicans called Democrats’ proposal a “spending spree” Friday. Free tuition is a good idea, said Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, but not when the state is strapped.
“The Democrats’ budget is an election year political ploy,” Fasano said.
Republicans heralded their budget proposal as the road to economic predictability and sustainability.
It failed to win any Democratic support so did not advance out of committee. Elements of the Republicans’ budget may surface later as legislators negotiate the final budget bill, party members said.
Republicans proposed spending $461 million less total gross than the Democrats’ plan, reducing spending in fiscal year 2019 by 6 percent compared with the amount planned in the October two-year budget. The Democrat’s budget is a 4 percent reduction compared with the original appropriation.
The two parties’ budgets both restored some funding for the Medicare Savings Plan, school health clinics and Department of Social Services Hispanic programs. They increased municipal and education grants to
“Our state is running out of options to control costs and pay down unfunded liabilities without drastically cutting services. Any additional revenue has to be used to ensure Connecticut’s fiscal sustainability for the long term while protecting local education and making necessary investments in transportation.” State Rep. Fred Wilms, D-Norwalk
towns. They reduced cuts to the Care 4 Kids preschool program and retired teachers health care.
Both plans cut tens of millions from the Department of Social Services and Department of Children and Families budgets.
But Republicans’ more austere plan would have eliminated the state’s current $321.5 million deficit, they said. It paid down the state’s unfunded liabilities up front by giving $400 to $600 million to the State Employee’s Retirement Fund, Teacher’s Retirement Fund and Retired Teacher’s Health Fund.
Money paid to those accounts would come from the state’s rainy day fund, which is intended to protect the state in economic downturns. The fund has specific caps that limits how it can be used, but Republicans said they would later change the limits so the money could be put toward pensions.
Due to higher than predicted revenues this spring and millions in capitol gains realized in December, the rainy day fund is projected to hold $1.2 billion this year, the Office of Policy and Management said.
Democrats disapproved. Malloy compared shifting money from the rainy day fund to pensions to teenagers who refuse to save their money.
“This is like spend as much as you can when you have it,” he said.
Republicans would achieve other savings in their plan by, in part, privatizing the Department of Mental Heath and Addiction Services and some Department of Motor Vehicles services and reducing grants to Hartford allocated to help the city pay off its debts, they said.
Other cuts, particularly those to Department of Labor programs helping disabled, unemployed or formerly incarcerated individuals, drew criticism from Democrats in the committee.
Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, called the cuts a “disservice to the state.”
Tough choices are necessary to bring Connecticut back to fiscal health, countered Rep. Fred Wilms, D-Norwalk.
“Our state is running out of options to control costs and pay down unfunded liabilities without drastically cutting services,” he said. “Any additional revenue has to be used to ensure Connecticut’s fiscal sustainability for the long term while protecting local education and making necessary investments in transportation.”
If an agreement cannot be reached before the session ends in two and a half weeks, legislators could also choose not to pass a new fiscal year budget and use the plan they laid out in the biennium budget passed in October.
Malloy warned lawmakers of the dangers of inaction in a letter Friday. Without new revenue, the state could not afford planned transportation improvement projects and would have to reduce train and bus services, he said.
The state Comptroller’s office said Friday it is projecting a deficit this year of $363.5 million, an increase of $170.8 million from the level reported in March.
About $150 million of the change is due to the state’s assumption that reimbursement from the federal government for hospital rate increases and supplemental payments will be delayed.
Connecticut faces deficits of $1.9 billion in fiscal year 2020, $2.7 billion in 2021 and $3.2 billion in 2022.