Malloy's New Budget Proposal: Layoffs, Cuts and Closures

HARTFORD, CT - Gov. Dannel Malloy has released an updated budget proposal Tuesday as he seeks to close the projected $922 million fiscal year 2017 budget.

Malloy said Tuesday that about 2,500 state government positions are scheduled to be cut, which includes current vacant positions. This is the first time Malloy has put a specific number on the number of state employee positions that would be need to be reduced from the budget.

The actual amount of layoffs will depend on a number of factors, including retirements.

Already approximately, 230 state employees have received layoff notices involving the state Department of Corrections, state Department of Children and Families, and the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.

Malloy also pitched an additional $350 million in spending cuts including $100 million for towns and cities and $43 million through the state’s Education Cost Share grant.

Proposed changes:

• Asks non-union employees, appointees and elected officials in all three branches of government to pay 20 percent of their health care benefits. The estimated savings is as much as $5 million per year.
• Reduce Medicaid income limit on parents of children (HUSKY A) to 138 of federal poverty level.
• Close Torrington Regional Office of Department of Social Services. Expected to save $2.377 million.
• Reduce funding for afterschool programs, charter schools, and education cost sharing.
• Consolidate detention center operations to Hartford in order to save $11.1 million.
• Eliminate $15.96 million for arts, tourism and other community grants.
• Maintain $11.8 million for small hospital pool.
• Fund the State Elections Enforcement Commission, Office of State Ethics and Freedom of Information Commission as independent agencies.

Connecticut is the only state as of April to provide coverage to parents and relative caregivers with income over 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Parents affected by the change could gain coverage through Access Health CT, which would come with federal subsidies. The change is expected to save the state $900,000 (FY 2017), $19.3 million (FY 2018) and $21 million (FY 2019).

Malloy said Connecticut’s government must adjust to the new economic reality.

"We have an obligation as elected officials to tackle the full scope of our challenge. That means we must align our spending with the revenue we actually have, not the revenue we wish we had,” he said in a statement. “Our expectations need to change - we cannot afford to fund everything we always have.”

The health care change should signal to people that there should be a growing expectation in state government that people will have to pay a bigger share of their benefits, Malloy said.

The governor proposed more than $100 million in reductions primarily for social services and education after the Appropriations Committee adopted an unbalanced budget proposal, according to CT Mirror.

He said legislators can expect to come back to a special session May 5 if they go home at the end of the session May 4 with an unbalanced budget.

Malloy still wants to make revamping Connecticut’s aging transportation system a priority. A common complaint among businesses looking to move into Connecticut is the state of transportation infrastructure.

“Transportation is one of the biggest if not the biggest complaint in the state,” Malloy said.