CT State Reps Issue No Tax Increase Budget Revision

From CT State Reps Office: State Representatives Charles Ferraro and Pam Staneski joined their House Republican colleagues on Tuesday to issue a revised no-tax-increase budget for 2018-19 that eliminates the projected $5 billion budget deficit, increases school funding for all towns, reduces the corporate surcharge and mitigates municipal aid losses by reallocating funds.

“Our revised budget still protects our communities from the governor’s reckless budget cuts, and sets Connecticut on a pathway that will create a sustainable future for our state,” said Rep. Ferraro. “We continue to show residents a better way forward, and it’s time for our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to realize that another tax increase is unacceptable. I want to see a bipartisan budget passed by June 7th, but I will not support a budget with tax increases or one that pushes the state’s fiscal woes onto our municipalities.”

“We can’t continue down the rabbit hole of taxing more and more to fund state government at unsustainable levels,” said Rep. Staneski. “While I would have preferred keeping a true ECS funding formula, such as the one we proposed, the daily news around our growing deficits required us to revise our budget proposal. We retracted, for the short-term, our proposed formula and moved to holding harmless our towns. This plan keeps Milford and Orange whole and makes some long-term structural changes. I am hopeful that our proposal, or parts of it, will be considered when negotiations begin."

In this current proposal, Republicans revert back to the former Education Cost Sharing formula, while also adding $20 million to the distribution. In addition, the proposal establishes a $90 million grant in order to ensure that no municipality loses aid compared to the current fiscal year.

Other structural changes include:

• Implements a strict Constitutional Spending Cap
• Reduces bond issuance cap from $2 billion to $1.3 billion for each fiscal year
• Ensures municipalities are held harmless
• Establishes a wage freeze for state employees, but no layoffs

Republicans now join Democrats and Gov. Malloy at the negotiating table to come up with a final budget plan that can pass both the House and Senate.

For more information on the House Republican budget proposal, please visit www.cthousegop.com/budget.

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