Rep. Yaccarino, House Republicans Propose Plan to Balance FY25 Budget

Contains structural spending reforms, invests in local education,

stays under the spending cap

On Thursday, I joined my House Republican colleagues to release a plan to balance the second year of the state budget, keeping a promise to Connecticut residents by honoring the fiscal guardrails, focusing on affordability, pursuing structural spending reforms, and increasing funding for local education to help prevent more pressure on local property taxpayers.

Our plan was developed to balance the budget after the Democrat-controlled Appropriations Committee decided against adjusting the $25.9 billion budget for FY25, which becomes effective July 1. Inaction would leave the budget out of balance and vulnerable to discretionary decisions from the Governor, who would have authority to make changes outside of the legislative session.

“The bipartisan fiscal guardrails that we enacted have been essential in righting our state’s financial ship, and now we are taking a strong stand to uphold them despite constant partisan pressure to blow the caps on spending and bonding,” Rep. Yaccarino said. “I am most proud that this budget minds the spending cap, while making a record investment in local education. My priority is to support our North Haven students, and this does just that.”

While legislative Democrats prioritize the state’s higher education system, House Republicans are directing their focus toward supporting children at the beginning of their educational journey. Republicans propose $236 million more for local education funding, including an additional $79 million more for surging special education costs. By providing an additional $12 million to increase reimbursement rates ($120 per hour to $167) to Birth to Three child services providers, Republicans will unlock more federal funding to help with staffing shortages. Responding to the state’s childcare crunch, Republicans matched the $12 million increase proposed by Gov. Lamont for the Care4Kids program.

The House Republican plan doesn’t tap remaining federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars, leaving at least $200 million available for acute needs such as funding for nonprofit service social providers, shoring up the state’s unemployment compensation fund, additional childcare investments, or higher education.

The House Republican budget adjustments have been vetted by the state’s nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis.

Our plan aims to shift budget priorities toward core commitments to residents, we also propose to:

• Keep a scheduled $42m deposit to the Teachers’ Retirement Fund that Democrats would forgo
• Allocate increase to Medicaid rates to behavioral health providers, mental health services for kids ($7m)
• Address surging price of goods, groceries, and services by eliminating Democrats’ truck tax
• Increase funding to municipalities to implement early voting ($3.6m)
• Deliver improved ambulance provider Medicaid rates Governor proposed to cut ($5m)
• Reinstate a portion of PILOT funding for municipalities ($16.3m)
• Provide CT Foodshare allocation (H.B. 5011) ($2m)
• Supply $1 million allocation for homeless shelter needs

For more details on our plan and what we’re doing for you, click here