State Senate ready to approve budget to take effect July 1

HARTFORD — The state Senate Tuesday night was ready to put the finishing touches on the $24.2-billion state budget that will take effect on July, but it looked like the 23-13 Democratic majority would be doing the approval by itself.

The bill reached the floor for debate shortly before 7 p.m., with Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, the co-chairwoman of the budget-writing Appropriations Committee, stressing the need to use the state’s robust surplus to support Connecticut’s children with mental health initiatives. The Senate debate began just as the state House was discussing final action on the third of three bills aimed at helping the state’s children with wide-ranging mental health and trauma support.

The budget spends 6.5 percent more than the current year, keeps the emergency reserves overflowing at $3.3 billion and invests $3.58 billion into the underfunded pension debt that accumulated to about $39 billion over the last few decades.

Osten said that while the budget will set a statewide tax rate for personal vehicles at 32.46 mills, saving money for residents of 75 higher-taxed towns and cities, she vowed that if reelected in the fall, she will make it a point to try to finally end local car taxes next year.

Sen. John Fonfara, DHartford, co-chairman of the tax-writing Finance Committee, said the seeds of the last couple of spending plans were sown in a 2017 bipartisan budget that set financial limits that gave the state more fiscal discipline.

]The budget includes $250-per-child tax credits for about 600,000 children; a $300 property tax credit for all filers. The state’s 25 cents-per-gallon gas-tax holiday and free bus service will continue through December 1.

State Sen. Craig Miner of Litchfield, the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee, warned that with the hundreds of millions of dollars planned for the year after the 2022-23 budget, lawmakers are jeopardizing the kind of fiscal health that was created by the spending and borrowing limits of 2017. “We are showing signs, stronger than the last time, of how to work outside the budget,” Miner said.

At 8:30, Sen. Henri Martin, R-Bristol, a top Republican on the Finance Committee, introduced the amendment, which was unlikely to win support from Democrats, who control the Senate 23-13.Kelly, on the Senate floor, said state families need “immediate relief.” The proposal included ending the highway use tax set to raise $90 million a year from large interstate trucsks.

“We have $4.8-billion of over-collected tax revenue,” Kelly said. “We could certainly

give back a $100million crumb. Let’s give the people of Connecticut the help they need now. Let’s

give the people historic tax relief.” The GOP amendment failed 23-12, along party lines, setting up the inevitable concurrence with the House, sending the spending package to Gov. Ned Lamont’s desk.