State Senate ready to approve $24.2B budget

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, DSprague, 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 wideranging 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, D-Hartford, 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.

“We are enjoying the fruits of that effort today,” Fonfara said. “This is what our constituents want and expect from us.”

The budget includes $250-perchild 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. The phase-out of the tax exemption on pensions and annuities will be complete next year.

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.

Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford, predicted little if any GOP support for the bill, which passed the House early on Tuesday in a straight party-line vote. Kelly said the $600 million in tax relief isn't enough at a time when there is a projected $4.8 billion budget surplus in the fiscal year that ends June 30.

“We're not voting on a budget,” Kelly told reporters outside the Senate chamber. “We're voting on an adjustment, because we have a balanced budget. We have a fully funded rainy day fund, and we're making historic contributions to the pension fund. As I have said for quite a while now, many in Hartford believe that because the state's finances are overflowing in money from various sources, that families across Connecticut are feeling and experiencing the same condition. Unfortunately that's not the case.”

He planned to double the Democrats' planned tax relief to $1.2 billion, stressing that a new analysis from non-partisan staff indicates that since there is new there is now more leeway to offer taxpayers bigger breaks and he intended to push the issue.

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.

"The spending growth in the Democrats' budget adjustment is massive, but the tax relief is underwhelming, insufficient, and shortchanges taxpayers,” Kelley said in a statement with Sen. Paul Formica, R-East Lyme, at the start of the debate. “Connecticut can deliver $1.2 billion in immediate tax relief proposed by Republicans to Connecticut residents.” We can do it without violating any perceived federal limitations. And we can do it while contributing a historic amount to our unfunded pension liabilities. There is no reason Connecticut cannot deliver over a billion dollars in tax relief today. Except that CT Democrats would rather spend more than tax less," Kelly and Formica said.