New London Senator Applauds Passage of Bipartisan State Budget

HARTFORD, CT – Early Thursday morning, the state Senate passed a bipartisan budget to close a projected $3.5 billion deficit over the next two years. Senator Paul Formica (Republican-East Lyme), co-chair of the Appropriations Committee, applauded the Senate passage of the budget that was crafted in bipartisan negotiations and includes policies from both Democrats and Republicans.

“Today Republicans and Democrats came together to again pass a bipartisan budget in the state Senate. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle united to restore millions of dollars to our towns and cities, our schools, and to core state services," Formica said in a release. "At the same time, we adopted a budget that reduces future spending by implementing a spending cap and bonding cap among other structural changes lawmakers have been seeking for years.

“I believe we need to restore people’s confidence in our state in order to attract job creators and promote economic growth. Passing a bipartisan budget that contains significant structural reforms sends an important message that we are taking the first vital step to heal and strengthen our state. This budget includes reforms our state has not been able to achieve for decades. Had many of these structural reforms been in place years ago, we would not be facing such overwhelming budget problems here today.

"I am proud to stand with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to adopt this budget, provide relief from the governor’s devastating executive order, and start down a new path hand-in-hand."

The bipartisan budget includes:

• A cap on state spending
• A cap on state bonding to reduce debt
• A hiring freeze
• Phases out the tax on social security income and pension income
• Municipal mandate relief to help towns and cities reduce costs and benefit local property taxpayers
• Does not shift teacher pension costs onto towns and cities
• No increase to the sales tax
• No cell phone tax
• No second home tax
• Protects funding for day services and employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities
• Protects funding for mental health and substance abuse treatment to fight the opioid epidemic
• Protects funding for child care for low income families
• Creates a new tourism fund to stabilize tourism funding
• Restores millions of dollars in local education funding and municipal aid and implements a new education funding formula
• Protects services for seniors including the CT Home Care Program, Senior Meals and non ADA dial a ride
• Includes targeted spending cuts including cuts to the legislature and reduces the number of legislative committees
• Implements the bipartisan “Passport to Parks” program which implements a $10 biennial fee to fund parks and in turn allows free entry to state parks to all those with Connecticut licenses.

Image via Shutterstock