For a decade, Connecticut Democrats haven't prioritized education funding to our municipalities, despite calls from Republican lawmakers to fully fund the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula.

Democrats have been in charge of the House, Senate, and Governor's office for years, so why hold a press conference now on adjusting ECS? I'm betting because it's an election year and the swell of voices of taxpayers and municipal officials has finally grown too loud to ignore. 

I'm happy to have the conversation though because our municipalities are in the middle of crafting their local budgets. The path to fully funding ECS to take the pressure off property taxpayers is long overdue.

Connecticut residents must prioritize what they're spending their household budget on, and the legislature should do the same. Taking care of our children should be front and center.

Instead, Democrats have prioritized millions of dollars for healthcare for illegal immigrants, earmarks for politically connected nonprofit operators, and hundreds of thousands of dollars for the former CSCU Chancellor to be a special advisor amid a spending scandal.

Connecticut needs to allocate more money for education, I don’t think there's disagreement there anymore, but the devil remains in the details. Using an off-the-books funding stream is not the way we should be doing this because it's not sustainable. The stock market is doing well now which means Connecticut has more money than expected, but that won't always be the case.

Using this $500 million in volatility funding goes against the spirit of the fiscal guardrails, which were put in place in 2017 because of shady budgeting practices that got Connecticut into a fiscal mess in the first place.

Bridgeport was singled out during the press conference by legislative Democrats as needing help, because of their financial mismanagement, but an ECS increase can't just be given to the cities with the towns getting the scraps. Legislative leaders like talking about Fair Share, and this ECS increase needs to be proportional so all municipalities can get their fair share.

I am ready and willing to work across the aisle on solutions that will help municipal leaders deliver quality education while providing relief for property taxpayers. I've stood with my caucus for years in proposing sustainable education funding for our communities, but they have largely been ignored. There have been brief talks about wanting to increase funding, but then it never comes to fruition in the state budget.

The Republican House Caucus has once again proposed a bill to reduce local property taxes by rebasing the ECS grant formula by increasing the foundation amount and adjusting for inflation.

We need a long-term solution for covering the rising cost of educating our children, without overburdening property taxpayers. I've been focused on making Connecticut more affordable and part of that is adjusting the ECS formula. 

I want to thank the parents, school administrators and staff, and especially the kids in Monroe and across the state who used their voices and spoke up for increased funding.