House Approves State Budget

Update: The house voted 74 to 70 to pass the budget, according to the Courant. All Republicans and eight Democrats voted against it. It now heads to Gov. Dannel Malloy's desk for approval. 

Original story: The State House of Representatives is in the process of debating a budget bill that would mitigate an estimated $1 billion deficit.

The House started debating the budget reduction plan Friday afternoon. The budget reduction plan passed the House Senate Thursday with all Democrats supporting and all Republicans opposing, according to the Hartford Courant.

Once the reductions totalling $960 million are approved, the overall spending would be increased by 0.4 percent for the $19.76 billion budget for fiscal year 2016-17, which goes into effect on July 1. State spending would effectively be reduced to 2011 levels, Sen. Beth Bye (D-West Hartford) told the CT Mirror.

The Cuts

About $300 million in reductions come from cuts to salary accounts in multiple state agencies. An estimated 2,500 state positions will be eliminated from the budget either through attrition or layoffs.

$8.5 million would be cut for private providers that perform state services, $7 million for mental health services and $5.5 million for behavioral service programs.

Deficit Woes Remain in the Future

Still, the legislature will be dealing with an estimated $1.27 billion budget deficit next session when it grapples with the 2017-2018 budget, according to the Mirror.

Criminal Justice Reforms

The senate also voted to pass more of Gov. Dannel Malloy’s proposed criminal justice reform ideas. The bill will establish a “young adult” offender category that will eventually include 18 to 20-year-olds.

The house still has to vote on the matter.

Low risk offenders would be tried as young adults within the juvenile justice system while violent offenders regardless of their age would be tried in adult court.

The idea behind the young adult category is to prevent a lifetime of punishment by preventing the offender’s name distributed at the moment of arrest. It would also give low-level offenders the chance to have court files permanently sealed if they don’t re-offend within four years.

Malloy also proposed a massive reform to the state’s bail system.

Cash bail would be eliminated for many misdemeanor charges and a 10 percent cash deposit of the bail set by a judge would be enough to be released while waiting for trial for many other more serious charges.

The proposal is expected to save millions of dollars per year for the state because it won’t have to house as many pre-trial defendants in its prison system.

Current bail bondsmen charge 7 percent of total bail for an offender to obtain a bond. The money isn’t returned to the accused.

Judges would be able to deny the 10 percent cash deposit if they feel the defendant poses a significant threat to someone else or the general public.

Photo via Lisa Jacobs/Flickr Commons