Posted on November 1, 2017
Newtown state lawmakers are applauding the governor’s Oct. 31 decision to sign the historic, bipartisan vote on a state budget to close a projected $3.5 billion deficit over the next two years.
The bipartisan budget eliminates the Governor’s executive order that deprived schools, communities, and nonprofit social service organizations of essential funding for 123 days.
According to State Rep. Mitch Bolinsky, “This is the first, truly bipartisan budget in modern CT history. The same can be said on a national basis. Is it a perfect budget? Absolutely not. But, in the true spirit of compromise, it contains much more sound policy than it does difficult choices and sacrifice. It gives just about everyone something to dislike. But it is remarkable to have achieved as many positives as we did, with such strong support from both sides of the aisle, especially in these very partisan times. I was pleased when Governor Malloy signed it on Tuesday afternoon, even though he invoked a line-item veto on the new hospitals’ revenue agreement that could have easily and more quickly been handled as a technical change amendment. Unfortunately, the way he chose to handle things only adds another delay to final implementation. It’s too bad he chose to make the process harder.”
“Despite the budget being less than perfect, for Newtown, it is a darn good start. It immediately restores critical school and municipal funding to our town and 84 others, sustaining us and our schools at a time that was, until last week, very uncertain. Now, we can keep our local house in order and have the predictability to keep things “Nicer in Newtown”, as our state begins its journey to re-grow a damaged tax base and transition to more efficient state government with greater local control…also good for Newtown.”
“It does not fix all of Connecticut’s financial woes at once but, this budget is clearly a step in the right direction. Think of it as an iceberg. Much of its substance is not immediately visible to the naked eye but, we’ll now be able to make progress on 30-years of fiscal unaccountability, even though it may take a few years of transition to fully realize the benefits. But, as a beginning, it tackles our state’s problem of spending and borrowing more than we take-in or can afford to pay back. After a 26-year wait, we have a brand-new Constitutional Spending Cap and a conservative bonding cap to keep a lid on our checkbook and credit cards. Mandate relief will ease some of the burdens on towns, schools and businesses. We’ll be phasing out state income taxes on Social Security and other retirement income, increasing or restoring funding to the social services safety net, including our local School-Based Health Center, non-profit providers, senior nutrition, residential home care and more. We’ve also stymied earlier, partisan proposals including income tax increases, sales tax increases, sales tax expansion, hotel & restaurant taxes, DMV fees, cell phone surcharges and more.”
“Perfect? No. But, I believe this is a reasonable path forward”, concluded Rep. Bolinsky.
“This budget stops Governor’s Malloy harmful executive orders and prevents his proposal to shift the teachers’ pension cost on to the cities and towns,” said Rep. Will Duff. “I came to the legislature promising tax relief and we delivered. This includes phasing out the Social Security and pension tax provides tax relief to our seniors especially those living on fixed incomes. I will continue to fight for additional tax cuts to stop the migration of people out of our great state.”
State Rep. J.P. Sredzinski said, “In the end we had two choices – this compromise budget or the governor’s dreadful executive order. I am relieved that the governor saw the writing on the wall and conceded that signing our budget was the only way to end this budget crisis that has affected too many Connecticut families. This budget restores 95% of Monroe and Newtown’s municipal aid and education funding, and also refuses the governor’s proposal to transfer a third of the cost of teacher pensions onto municipalities. “I made a promise to do whatever it took to ensure this funding was saved, so the best option was to support this compromise budget in spite of certain elements I am still uncomfortable with. I count this as a small victory for our towns over Governor Malloy and I will resume the fight for Connecticut’s future next session.”
“Anyone who watched this budget crisis unfold knows how hopeless our situation seemed for most of the year and sensed massive tax increases on the horizon,” said Rep. Sredzinski. “For a while, it looked like tolls, sales tax hikes, cell phones taxes, taxes on seasonal homes, and supplemental property tax bills were all possible if not inevitable. The fact that none of these new taxes were implemented is an achievement, especially given the budget keeps funding for core government services like Care4Kids.”
Rep. Sredzinski concluded by calling the passage of the compromise budget “the best option we had,” saying, “Majority Democrats essentially set our fiscal house on fire by passing the SEBAC union agreement. Rather than stand back and watch the house burn down, I grabbed the nearest hose I could find and tried to put it out. We still have a lot of work to do but the state will truly be in better shape when this budget becomes law.”
Sen. Tony Hwang said, “We desperately needed to pass a budget to ensure the people of Newtown and the communities of Connecticut did not suffer irreparable damage. I am relieved that we finally have a bipartisan budget for Connecticut. Legislators stepped up to lead during the state’s fiscal crisis and make difficult but sound choices. Importantly, this plan does not transfer the state’s responsibility of teacher pension payments onto our local town budgets. It implements long overdue structural changes to how we govern into the future. Much more needs to be done, but I am excited to begin with this budget as a catalyst toward a better Connecticut. We must keep working to pass budgetary policies which bring about predictability, stability and transparency in our state.”
The budget is the result of bipartisan negotiations and contains policies from both Democrats and Republicans, including:
1. An enforceable spending cap
2. A bonding cap of $1.9 billion
3. No broad sales tax increases or income tax increases
4. A new formula to ensure education aid is directed proportionally to towns based on need.
5. Predictable municipal aid so that towns and cities know what they can count on from the state
6. No shift of teacher pension costs onto towns and cities thereby saving towns, cities, schools and taxpayers from shouldering another financial burden
7. Significant mandate relief to help municipalities achieve efficiencies, foster cooperation between school boards and local governments, and pass savings on to taxpayers
8. Targeted spending cuts and reductions to state government agency accounts, excluding cuts to core services
9. A hiring freeze on non-24-hour non-union positions
10. Manageable reductions to higher education institutions, while aid for scholarships for low- and middle-income students was preserved
11. Protection of funding for core social services and programs that benefit people most in need
12. Full funding for day and employment services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities
13. Protection of funding for mental health and substance abuse treatment programs.
14. Protection of aging in place initiatives are protected by restoring funding for the CT Home Care Program and opening it to new participants
15. Increasing funding for Seniors Meals and non ADA dial a ride, and preserving the personal needs allowance
16. Lowers taxes for retirees by eliminating the tax on social security income
17. Lowers taxes for retirees by eliminating the tax on pension income for single filers with an AGI below $75,000 and joint filers below $100,000
18. A plan to stabilize the Special Transportation Fund by dedicating transportation-related revenues to fund transportation needs. Without this change, the STF was projected to be insolvent by 2021, which would put all transportation projects in jeopardy.
More information and details can be found at www.cthousegop.com and at www.ctsenaterepublicans.com.