June 17, 2021

Bolinsky: State Budget Process is Broken

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NEWTOWN- Late last night, State Rep. Mitch Bolinsky (R-106) voted against an egregious budget implementer which was crafted in the cover of darkness without Republican input and given only a few hours to properly review and deliberate before a vote.

On Wednesday, the state legislature held a Special Session to take up the bill which puts the state budget into action, called the budget implementer, SB 1202: AAC Provisions Related to Revenue and Other Items to Implement the State Budget for the Biennium Ending June 30, 2023.

“This implementer flies in the face of the cooperative and bipartisan spirit in which I supported the state budget,” said Rep. Bolinsky, a member of the budget-writing Appropriations committee. “In June, although it wasn’t perfect, I supported the new two-year state budget mostly due to the budget not including any new taxes on the working families of Connecticut and was kind to Newtown, in terms of our municipal and state educational aid.”

Rep. Bolinsky received the 837-page behemoth, consisting of 544 sections to enact the policy and substance meant to implement the budget, as passed during Regular session. Unfortunately, yesterday’s legislation added dozens and dozens of additional items not specified in the voted upon budget, in the form of new language that was never debated nor subject to public hearings during the 2021 Regular Session.

According to Rep. Bolinsky, some of the most loathsome provisions were:

Delays property tax relief for adults who are not seniors or have dependents to claim on their tax filings;
Delays promised tax relief to businesses by extending the corporate tax surcharge by another two years;
Grants felons the right to vote without requiring them to pay their sentencing fines or completing parole;
Mandates employers to provide their employees 2 hours of unpaid time off to vote without regard for the costs businesses and municipalities will incur;
Provides DEEP with incontestable authority, without legislative input, to develop and implement a statewide waste management plan, that may include a new “pay-as-you-throw” scheme whereby residents and businesses would pay by the pound for solid waste. It also enables DEEP to mandate businesses to be on bear the cost to recycle certain products or packaging purchased by consumers;
Allows inmates 90 minutes a day of free phone-calls;
Reduces funding to the state Contracting Standards Board that ensures state agencies bid competitively for projects in a transparent, cost effective manner, consistent with state and federal laws.