GOP proposal adds millions for education

Budget measure also would cut program that gives free health care to children who lack legal immigration status

With less than two weeks until the close of the legislative session, House Republicans presented their own budget proposal that would add millions of dollars to education funding, but cut a program that provides free health care to children who lack legal immigration status.

As House Democrats stand by their plan to leave the state budget untouched, Republicans presented the package of adjustments Thursday they say will balance the budget in Fiscal Year 2025.

Rep. Tammy Nuccio, a ranking member of the Appropriations Committee who crafted the proposal, said the Republican budget would boost spending on education-related items by nearly $300 million in Fiscal Year 25, including $80 million to fully fund special education excess costs.

In addition to other budget initiatives, the proposal would eliminate the highway use tax, deposit $42 million in the Teachers’ Retirement Fund, and increase birth to three Medicaid reimbursement rates from $120 to $167 an hour.

It would also add $3.6 million to fund early voting for municipalities.

House Republican Leader Vincent Candelora said the state’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget is “out of balance and $30 million over the spending cap.”

Candelora said the Republican’s proposal would put the state $43 million under the spending cap, without tapping into the state’s reserve of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.

“We don’t know if there’s gonna be a vehicle to run this budget, but we believe there’s an obligation to run an adjusted budget,” Candelora said. “We need to first convince the other side of the aisle that putting your head in the sand and doing nothing and spending the last tranche of federal money that we have is not good fiscal policy and it will only get us into trouble.”

In response to the Republican’s proposal, House Speaker Matt Ritter indicated Thursday that the state budget will remain closed and that Democrats will move forward with their plan to allocate ARPA funds in lieu of adjustments this session.

Candelora said Fiscal Year 2025 requires cuts and that a failure to act would put “the fiscal guardrails in jeopardy and our budget in jeopardy.”

“We don’t want to leave it in the hands of the governor. We believe we have an obligation as the legislature to put forth a balanced budget,” Candelora said.

Chris Collibee, the budget spokesman for Gov. Ned Lamont, said the governor’s office appreciated Republican “efforts to propose budget adjustments for FY 2025.”

“While we may not agree with all of the adjustments that House Republicans have proposed, the legislature has signaled that it will maintain the adopted budget for FY

2025 without revision. To that end, we are working with legislative leadership to address resources for priorities in the coming year while maintaining adherence to the Governor’s commitment to an honestly balanced budget,” Collibee said in a statement to the Courant.

The Republican proposal would cut spending on several line items, including reductions of $26 million for hiring state employees and $10 million by requiring incarcerated individuals to partially pay for phone calls.

Most notably, it would cut $45.7 million by eliminating Medicaid eligibility for state residents who lack permanent legal immigration status in the U.S.

Currently, all qualifying children ages 12 and younger may access HUSKY Health, regardless of their immigration status. Last session, the legislature voted to expand eligibility up to age 15.

Nuccio said that when the legislature initially passed the expansion, lawmakers believed the program would cost $7 million annually. In actuality, Nuccio said the program is “coming in closer to $50 million.”

“It is a massive number that is much higher than everybody was told it was going to be,” Nuccio said. “By investing in education and with the school-based health centers, with federally-qualified health centers and everything else, we just feel like we have to take that cut right now.”

House Majority leader Jason Rojas called the proposal a “misguided suggestion.”

“I think politically, that works for them, I think ethically and as a human, these are individuals who need health care and all of us will pay for it one way or another. So we can either be proactive about it or when they show up in an emergency room, we’ll pay for it through our premiums,” Rojas said.

Ritter said House leaders will review the Republican proposal, however, he suggested that adjustments are unlikely.

“We’ll look at this and we’ll talk to the governor’s office and the Senate, but I think our plan will remain the same,” Ritter said. “We passed a really good budget that everybody voted for. And it’s not out of balance. We think we’re in a pretty good place.”

“Yes, there are some deficiencies in certain line items, but there’s also surpluses in others, and we think we can manage the second year that way if we have to come in in the spring,” Ritter added.

Ritter said there is no deficit for Fiscal Year ‘24 and that he expects the state to end the year with $20 to $100 million.

As for Fiscal Year 2025, Ritter said “The problem is the revenue cap.” As a result, he said, “One person’s definition of a deficit is not the normal person’s definition of a deficit.”

After receiving the Republican’s proposal, Ritter said he is “flexible” to suggestions, but he said “at this late hour, it might be difficult” to open the state budget.

“Timing is an issue. And because we … feel like we’re certainly not jeopardizing the state’s fiscal health in any way by leaving the biennium budget the way it is, we feel comfortable just maybe doing the ARPA allocation,” Ritter said.

Candelora and other Republicans opposed the Democrat’s ARPA plan.

“If the Democrats are just taking ARPA funds and shifting it into bonding so they could spend more money while our budget is in deficit, that is a disastrous proposal,” Candelora said. “We have to figure out what of the ARPA money is truly left. Is it roughly $50 million like the governor identified, or is it $300 million?”

Once the ARPA funds are identified, Candelora said the legislature can “fill holes” in areas such as higher education, nonprofits, the unemployment compensation fund, childcare and higher energy costs.

“I don’t think our priorities are a lot different from (Democrats),” Candelora said. “The big difference is we’re not willing to spend that money without an adjusted budget. So what we’re saying is let’s adjust the budget first, which is, you know, the fiscally prudent thing to do, andthenlet’sspendthearpa money second.”

Ritter said the state’s remaining ARPA dollars must be spent by the end of the year.

“To not do that this year, it’s not a good idea, you just give the money back to the feds,” he said. “We think the ARPA plan works best right now.”