The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Lawmakers question budget
OPM secretary grilled on initiatives
HARTFORD — State lawmakers fired off their first questions on Thursday, asking the governor’s budget chief details on a variety of initiatives in the first-year, $20.8 billion proposal.
During a two-and-halfhour session before the budget-writing Appropriations Committee, Melissa McCaw, secretary of the Office and Policy and Management, first briefed lawmakers for an hour on the scope of the budget, then took questions.
The co-chairmen of the committee had to repeatedly steer questions away from revenue, such as the proposed highway tolls, and keep panel members on the issue of expenditures.
“It’s hard to look at an entire budget without looking at how we’re going to float the boat,” replied state Sen. Joan Hartley, D-Waterbury, who wanted to ask about tolls, but instead focused
Gov. Ned Lamont’s proposed efficiencies, including expanded computer-based services for consumers.
“We have a lot of silo systems,” McCaw replied. “And in terms of implementing more of a onestop shop, there would have to be a framework created so you could access those systems with one tap, in a sense.”
She said that with advancements in technology, as generations of state workers retire, the skill sets of future workers will likely be weighted more toward information technology. “A lot of the needs initially will be part staffing and part consultant support to kick this off,” she said.
Veteran state Rep. Pat Dillon, D-New Haven, said she has watched the steady “erosion” of funding for social services, including support for those coming out of prison, or with mental issues, HIV, and alcoholism. “There have been dramatic cuts to every one of those,” Dillon said. “I know you’re a new administration. Even if people have moral feelings about mental health or addiction, I think the access issues, we’re really going to have to deal with.”
“It’s certainly a very important component of our safety net,” McCaw replied. “We are not reducing services in the governor’s budget. It’s essentialon ly holding the program at fiscal 2019 levels.”
“What is planned in terms of transportation expenditures over the biennium?” asked Rep. Gail Lavielle, R-Wilton, to which McCaw replied that spending is currently projected at remaining the same.
“This budget provides an adequate debt service budget to meet existing projects,” McCaw replied, stressing there is adequate funding for the next two years without tolls. “There will be no project we’re halting, per se. It is important that a decision is made at some point.”
Rep. Toni Walker, DNew Haven, co-chairman of the committee, had to steer away some legislators from quizzing McCaw on proposed changes in the tax rates, which is the purview of the Finance, Revenue & Bonding Committee. “Unfortunately, we’re not a ways and means committee,” Walker said.
Rep. Lucy Dathan, DNew Canaan. whose district includes part of Norwalk, said she was concerned about the proposals seeking to regionalize school systems. “It’s something that people are talking a lot and I want to see an incentivized approach to doing it rather than a punitive approach,” she said.