June 12, 2025

Rep. Lanoue Opposes Biennium Budget

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I wanted to share with you why I strongly opposed the budget that the Democratic majority brought to the House Floor. With 693-pages of content, I was hopeful that it would include a line item for volunteer first responder stipends that I have introduced every session for the last five years. If either passed or added to the budget, it would exempt the first $2,000 in stipends for volunteer firefighters, fire police, and EMT personnel in Connecticut. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. I find it despicable and utterly disgusting the Democrats found $116 million dollars to give free healthcare to illegal aliens but could not find $250,000 to support over 22,000 volunteer first responders and help protect Connecticut homeowners from the risks of additional skyrocketing local property taxes.

I find it deeply concerning and unacceptable that majority Democrats have decided to include parts of the Senate’s Library Bill in the Budget Implementor, which is unrelated to the budget itself. This move seems sneaky and takes away local towns’ ability to influence what goes into school libraries, as decisions will now be made mostly at the state level. This means it will be much harder for parents to challenge inappropriate materials, including sexually explicit content. Several unsuitable books for children were discussed at length on the House Floor Monday evening. It seems the same books that Democrats found suitable for children was not suitable material for the House Floor debate which is just infuriating to me and so many across our state and country. This is an outrageous overreach of power by the Democrats, and I urge parents to pay close attention to what their children might be accessing in school libraries.

What I laid out for you above is just two of the many reasons this budget is not right for the 45th District and Connecticut overall. Below, you will find other concerns that I had with this budget that I just could not support:

Increases government spending to the tune of $450 million.
Eviscerates our fiscal guardrails.
Imposes Tax Increases to certain companies based in Connecticut which will further harm job creation.
Allows no taxation of property on Indian Reservations even if not owned by the tribes, severely hurting towns like Ledyard and comparable industries in the area.
Underfunds Medicaid.
Underfunds Special Education as well as Talented and Gifted programs.

For all the reasons I shared above, along with the fact that this budget will also increase taxes by an additional $2 billion-I voted NO.