Lawmakers Look On Bright Side—

At Least Newtown Is Not Losing State Funding

By John Voket

Three state lawmakers representing Newtown acknowledged this week that the state budget proposal, which awaits the governor’s signature, fails to net any significant amount of new state aid to the community. State senators, including minority leader John McKinney, voted 33-1 June 25 to give final legislative approval to a two-year, $36 billion state budget package that spends historic sums on local education and health care.

Representatives Julia Wasserman and DebraLee Hovey joined most of their colleagues in approving the deal June 23 in a bipartisan 134-5 vote.

The budget package is now awaiting the final approval of Governor M. Jodi Rell, who is expected to sign it.

The votes came nearly three weeks after the General Assembly adjourned its regular legislative session without passing a new budget. The majority Democrats and the minority Republicans, including Gov Rell, disagreed for weeks on spending levels and whether there was a need to raise or lower state taxes.

Ultimately, the compromise budget raises only the cigarette tax, from $1.51 to $2 per pack, starting July 1. The budget represents an 8.6 percent spending increase in fiscal year 2008 and a 4 percent jump in fiscal year 2009.

That level of spending exceeds the state’s constitutional cap on spending by $690.4 million in the first year, according to the legislature’s nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis. Gov Rell has signed off on exceeding the spending cap, as required by law.

In theory, the cap can be violated in fiscal emergencies.

Most Republican senators acknowledged they are not happy about exceeding the cap, but decided to back the budget anyway because it included many things they like. This was the first time in years that the minority party played an active role in the negotiations.

The lone vote against the budget came from freshman Senator Sam Caligiuri, R-Waterbury, who was concerned about the spending cap.

Much of the additional spending stems from education and health care initiatives. The legislation includes an additional $441 million over two years for local school aid, the largest increase in state history. New measures also require school districts to account for the funding and measure their students’ achievement. And the bill includes additional funding for scholarships to public and private colleges.

There is also about $470 million in additional funding for health care, including $94 million in the first year and $120.7 million in the second to boost reimbursement rates to doctors, hospitals, clinics, and dentists that serve needy patients on Medicaid. Physicians have not seen a rate increase in 18 years.

There is more funding for state parks, nursing homes, the state teachers’ retirement fund, young adults with developmental disabilities, and the state’s Rainy Day Fund.

During this legislative session, Sen McKinney helped write Jessica’s Law for Connecticut and led it to passage. The law establishes mandatory minimum jail sentences for convicted child sex offenders and takes aim at the growing threat posed by online child predators. Sen McKinney talked about Jessica’s Law and other successes of the 2007 legislative session Thursday:

“Senate Republicans have had a major influence on the 2007 legislative session,” Sen McKinney said in a release. “We have helped rein in the majority’s ambitious tax and spend proposals; we authored and passed legislation to provide tax credits to businesses that create new jobs; we exposed and thwarted several attempts by the super majority to usurp the governor’s executive powers; and we passed Jessica’s Law — which I believe is the signature accomplishment of this 2007 General Assembly.”

‘Quirk In The System’

In the final days before the senate vote, Sen McKinney introduced a provision that would ensure no town received less state aid than in the previous year. That motion all but ensured Newtown and Canaan would not be the only two Connecticut communities losing ground on state aid in the new budget proposal.

“In a year where we are bringing historic amounts of new state aid, it wasn’t fair to have any town receive less money in 2008 than in 2007,” Sen McKinney.

He pointed out that Newtown was put in the position this year because a “quirk in the system” disproportionately levied PILOT grants for Newtown and other communities that are home to correction facilities, along with casino-related grants against the historic injection of education dollars. Sen McKinney said the Education Cost Share formula increase is tremendously important to Newtown.

“We increased the minimum aid ratio ECS from six percent to nine percent, which is really going to make a bigger difference in the years to come,” Sen McKinney said.

Rep Wasserman said Newtown’s allocation of state funds may have been flat-lined because of its escalating per-capita income.

“The wealthier you get per capita, the more you are going to get taken away,” Rep Wasserman said. “I’m not happy about it but Newtown will be getting no less than in recent years.”

At the same time, she acknowledged that the budget package provides no tangible benefits for Connecticut taxpayers.

“There’s no tax relief…no break at the gas pumps,” Rep Wasserman said.

While defending the budget, which uses surplus funds in part to shore up the state teacher pension fund, Rep Wasserman said the approximately $1 billion surplus indicates to her that Connecticut is still overtaxing its citizens. She also warned that overspending in a flush surplus period could spell disaster in subsequent years when the state revenue flow is lean.

“It’s not a gimmick to use surplus money when we have $1 billion [surplus]. But we end up with a surplus too frequently,” she said. “Maybe we’re asking for too much in taxes. I know we are spending much too much.”

Rep Wasserman pointed to landmark spending on education as an example of how here today, gone tomorrow surpluses can end up costing towns and cities in the long run.

“In the future, we may not have these revenues to cover the costs of programs we are implementing this year,” she said. “All the new school programs and education salaries go on and go up [in cost] even when the surplus is gone.”

Rep Hovey said because the new state budget does not include the major tax increases proposed early in the Legislative Session, it is a victory for the state’s taxpayers. The State Senate gave final legislative approval to the two-year, $36 billion package on Monday, June 25, and Gov Rell has indicated she will sign it into law shortly.

Newtown will continue to receive $6,642,599 in state funding in fiscal year 2007-2008.  In fiscal year, 2008-2009, it is scheduled to receive an additional $181,634 in state funds, for a total of $6,824,233.

“Considering that fact that at the start of the session, the debate was focused on which major tax increase should be approved, this is really a victory for the people of our state, who I feel are overtaxed already,” said Rep Hovey. “We were able to maintain the state funding level for Newtown, but clearly, the Legislature needs to improve fairness in future budgets regarding the level of funds provided to smaller towns.”

Overall, Rep Hovey called this year’s return to Newtown “disappointing,” and faulted Democratic lawmakers who predominantly represent urban centers for lumping communities like Newtown together with more southerly Fairfield County towns regarded for their wealth.

“Until we can make those urban legislators understand that there are suburban Fairfield County communities that are not the New Canaans, not the Greenwiches….we have wealthy, we have poor, and we have a lot of people who are hard working middle-class. We need to bring money back to our districts, not just send all the money to Hartford. And it is the Democratic majority that represents those urban centers.

“Bridgeport got $10 million more in funding than they ever got before, and they are still crying that it is not enough,” she added.

(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)