Here's How Much Less Westport Will Receive From The State

By Jack Kramer, Correspondent

It isn’t usual when towns are getting less money, or in some rare cases more money, than they’ve gotten the previous year for leaders to be thankful. But considering what could have been, the budget passed by the House and Senate is much better news.

The $41.34 billion, two-year budget passed by a 126-23 vote in the House and a 33-3 vote in the Senate this week means the following:

• Westport will be getting $84,000 less this fiscal year that it did in the 2017 fiscal year. For the next fiscal year, 2019, Westport will be receiving $179,000 less in state funding than it got in 2017;
  

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget planned to take much more away from the towns – in some cases in the millions of dollars – in an effort to divert education funding to the poorer, bigger cities in the state.

The good news for the towns is the House and Senate votes passed by a substantial margin – meaning they are veto proof, as Malloy has said he will likely veto the budget if it doesn’t meet his goals.