New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
‘Really critical week’ in budget negotiations
HARTFORD — Leaders of the House of Representatives agreed on Tuesday that this week will be crucial to finishing budget negotiations and deciding on a new two-year spending package in time for the June 7 adjournment deadline.
“This is a really critical week to make substantial progress,” said Speaker of the House Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, along with House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, prior to a closeddoor afternoon caucus of his 98-member majority. “I think we need to get to substantial final form in the coming days. But it’s crunch time. Every day that goes by, our caucus grows weaker in the budget negotiations. So the marker that needs to be put down is, for the legislature to be a coequal branch of government, substantial progress has to be made on the budget about 21 days before you adjourn.”
The various House and Senate Democratic and Republican caucuses have all put forward proposals, along with the document Gov. Ned Lamont proposed in February proposal to spend $50.4 billion over the biennium that starts July 1. Democrats proposed spending as much as $50.9 billion. Ritter and House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, RNorth Branford, agree that the conflict — such as it is during a time of multibillion-dollar budget surpluses — is over $200 million in spending.
With 98 members in the House Democrats, Ritter said it’s difficult to get everyone back for a special legislative session in the late spring or summer. “No matter who the governor is, my dear friend the current governor or if I had a governor I didn’t like, it would be the same answer: they are too powerful when you get in special session,” Ritter said. “This is the week, yes or no, or we go to Plan B. We have a lot of alternatives, I’ll say that. Yet we are mired in a lessthan-1-percent-of-the budget discussion.”
The options include passing their own budget, including an Appropriations Committee package for $50.9 billion that won some support from Republicans on the panel. Late last month, House Republicans offered a $50.7 billion budget, followed by Senate Republicans, who offered a record $1.5 billion in taxes.
“We don’t want to get to July 1” without a budget, Candelora said. “Given the surpluses that are involved, there is no disadvantage for the executive branch to drag this out to July because then they have full control of the spending priorities they want, so I do appreciate that as being part of the legislature that we would like to see this conversation completed by June 7.”
Candelora said that the state is feeling the effects of the closure of schools at the height of the pandemic..
“We’ve got to try to get that learning curve back up,” Candelora said. “Connecticut still has not recovered from the educational devastation that COVID caused and so we prioritize funding for education. On the same hand, we also want to see reforms put in place that reduces spending. Our higher-ed system cannot continue on the track that it’s going. So we want accountability along with the additional spending.”
Candelora wondered whether what Democrats and the Democratic governor might be working on is following the spending
constraints agreed upon back in 2017. “We’re not that far off,” he said.
“I’ve heard it’s about $200 million and we’re not willing to violate a spending
cap for $200 million. We need to live within our means.”