Kokoruda Votes for Budget that Restores Education, Municipal Fund

From The State of CT: Representative Noreen Kokoruda voted for a bipartisan budget that averts Gov. Malloy’s devastating education cuts to cities and towns and installs structural municipal mandate reform that will provide long-term relief sought by local leaders and the taxpayers they serve.

Kokoruda said that this bipartisan state budget puts an end to a four-month standstill and restores local municipal and education funding.

“I’m glad that I had the opportunity to vote in favor of a budget. There are many aspects of this budget that I do not support, but over all there is a lot of good. My Republican colleagues and I have been asking for aspects like municipal reform, a constitutional bonding cap, and an elimination of onerous state taxes for years – this budget achieves it. I am hopeful that this budget will move Connecticut in a new direction, one that supports core social services, and seeks to keep seniors and residents here without penalizing them with taxes,” said Kokoruda.

Budget highlights include:

• Enacts the constitutional spending cap that was first approved by voters in 1992
• Imposes a $1.9 billion cap on borrowing, $500 million less than what was borrowed last year
• Restores municipal and education funding cut by the governor’s executive order
• Protects core social services, such as day care funding and programs for developmentally disabled
• Supports seniors by phasing in a tax exemption on social security and pensions
• Imposes a state employee hiring freeze
• Limits state union contracts to being no longer than 4 years
• Provides municipal mandate relief by reducing construction costs, reforming the arbitration process, and providing greater transparency to boards of education budgets
• Phases out the Estate Tax

The budget also stopped proposals which would have raised taxes on our residents including:

• No sales tax increase
• No income tax increase
• No tax on cell phones
• No restaurant tax
• No business tax increase
• Does not shift teachers pensions on to municipalities

The plan passed the Senate 33-3 Wednesday evening and by 126-23 in the House of Representatives on Thursday. The budget awaits action from the governor.

Image Courtesy of The Office of State Rep. Kokoruda