During a long stretch of economic growth and prosperity in Connecticut, the state’s legislators always seemed to come up with cakes enough for eating and having. A long string of budget surpluses allowed both tax cuts and popular spending programs to co-exist in state budgets. With the sudden end of rapid economic expansion in the state, however, the Legislature spent this week in a special session trying to find the money to cover an expected $300 million budget shortfall. At risk in the bagaining was state funding for the preservation of over 15,000 acres of watershed land in Fairfield County, known as the Kelda land.

As they went into the session, Democrats and Republicans had agreed on about $100 million in spending cuts and increased borrowing – but the agreement seemed to stop there. Late last month, the Democratic Speaker of the House Moira K. Lyons suggested that some of the spending from the 2001 surplus, including $28 million for the Kelda purchase, be cut. Fortunately, Republican legislators and the governor were lining up in support of the open space purchase. If reason prevails this week the state budget plan will not scuttle the Kelda deal.

Fairfield County, the state’s most developed county, sorely needs to preserve its fast disappearing open space. The Kelda deal would add 645 acres to Newtown’s precious stock of open space. The land in Newtown, and much of the Kelda watershed property in the county, would be prime land for residential development. And as Newtown has learned in the past decade, residential development is a net money loser for a municipality. Over time, new neighborhoods ultimately lead to new schools, new teachers, new roads, new police officers, new fire engines, new ball fields, and an endless succession of new expenses for a town.

A move by the Legislature now to save money by forgoing the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to preserve 15,000 acres in southwestern Connecticut would be an exercise in false economy. What the state might save now will be spent many times over in the years to come in grants to municipalities for public facilities and capital projects as they cope with population growth directly associated with the residential development of Kelda lands. Newtown’s state representatives understand this, the governor understands this, and we hope, in the end, the Democratic majority in the Legislature understands this.