Gov. Malloy proposes cutting state funds to towns

HARTFORD and NORTHWEST CORNER —  On Wednesday, Feb. 8, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy (D) submitted his biennial budget proposal to the state legislature.

For fiscal year 2017–2018, Malloy is recommending $20,097 billion in expenditures for the state, while for fiscal year 2018–2019, he recommends $20,545 billion in expenditures.

Malloy outlined his proposed budget in a speech at the General Assembly on Feb. 8.

“One of the basic principals of our country is that if you’re willing to work hard, you should have the opportunity to succeed,” Malloy said. “You should be able to buy a house, afford health care or send your children to college. 

“It’s a fundamental promise that has come to be known as the ‘American dream.’ It’s why people from around the world, the huddled masses yearning to breath free, brave the journey in the hope of a better life here in America. 

“All levels of government — so much of what we do is really about delivering on that fundamental promise. While we can disagree strongly on policy or politics, we collectively judge ourselves by how many of our constituents have the opportunity for success.”

Malloy said that he wanted to “speak about the opportunity that we provide to our towns and cities … so that they also can succeed.”

“The truth is that, for far too long, we’ve allowed certain communities to be disproportionately impacted by the state’s fiscal challenges,” Malloy said. “While we’ve made advancements in recent years to address this inequity, I don’t believe that we’ve gone far enough. Disparities have persisted and grown over the years, creating large pockets of concentrated poverty where communities sometimes sacrifice education for services, or services for education, or both. 

“It’s a vicious cycle that began decades ago. One that hinders poorer urban communities, leaving them with the highest tax burdens, troubled educational systems and substantially fewer city services, causing them to be even poorer still. 

“In turn, suburban towns feel as though they’re shouldering too much of the burden of neighboring cities. And all the while, rural communities feel forgotten altogether. 

“The result is a broken, disparate system where towns are pitted against one another, constantly fighting for limited state dollars. As towns have been forced into this race to the bottom, their state government has yet to build the kind of world-class education system necessary for growing a new generation of workers.”

Malloy said that his proposed budget includes $1.36 billion in new spending reductions.

“These cuts are not made lightly, and I know they will include things that people in this chamber strongly support,” he said. “Let me assure you, they include things I myself strongly support. But our economic reality demands that we re-envision state government. Together, we need to provide essential core services and we need to find ways to do it at less cost to taxpayers.”

Northwest Corner cuts

In Malloy’s proposed budget, various cuts are made in state funding to Northwest Corner towns.

Under Malloy’s proposal, Winsted would receive $9,603,364 in state aid, a reduction of $369,776 from the current fiscal year.

Barkhamsted would receive $1,581,669 in state aid, a reduction of $515,206 from the current fiscal year.

Colebrook would receive $382,658 in state aid, which is a reduction of $389,282 from the current fiscal year.

New Hartford would receive $2,548,014 in state aid, a reduction of $1,426,761 from the current fiscal year.

Norfolk would receive $383,210 in state aid, a reduction of $88,054 from the current fiscal year.

Educational funding

 adjustments

Meanwhile, Education Cost Sharing (ECS) is also cut to towns in the Northwest Corner in Malloy’s proposed budget.

For Winsted, in both fiscal 2017–2018 and fiscal 2018–2019, Malloy proposes $5,659,959 in ECS funding, which is a reduction of $2,364,998.

For Barkhamsted for each fiscal year, ECS funding is proposed to be $1,042,179, which is a reduction of $591,507.

For Colebrook for each fiscal year, ECS funding is proposed to be $81,186, which is a reduction of $410,202.

For New Hartford for each fiscal year, ECS funding is proposed to be $1,692,298, which is a reduction of $1,420,871 in funds.

For Norfolk for each fiscal year, ECS funding is proposed to be $4,200, which is a reduction of $21,615 in funds.

Meanwhile, Malloy is proposing a new special-education grant for towns.

According to a press release, funds for the grant are “allocated on an adjusting scale based on a municipality’s relative wealth in order to provide a more transparent approach to special-education resources and needs.”

Malloy’s budget for both fiscal 2017–2018 and fiscal 2018–2019 proposes $3,567,510 in special-education grant funds for Winchester.

For Barkhamsted, special-education grant funds are proposed to be $548,719 for each fiscal year, while Colebrook’s grant funds are proposed to be $167,757 for each fiscal year.

New Hartford’s special-education grant funds are proposed to be $1,036,112 for each fiscal year, and Norfolk’s grant funds are proposed to be $120,198 for each fiscal year.

Pension funding reform

Malloy’s proposed budget includes a change in how the state funds teacher pensions through the state’s Teachers’ Retirement System.

With the proposed change, cities and towns would cover one-third of the costs for teachers’ pensions.

For Winsted, in the proposed budget the town would pay $594,612 in fiscal 2017–2018 and $613,937 in fiscal 2018–2019.

Barkhamsted would pay $409,944 in fiscal 2017–2018 and $423,267 in fiscal 2018–2019 while Colebrook would pay $169,448 in fiscal 2017–2018 and $174,955 in fiscal 2018–2019, and New Hartford would pay $801,726 in fiscal 2017–2018 and $827,782 in fiscal 2018–2019.

Finally, Norfolk would pay $152,352 in fiscal 2017–2018 and $157,303 in fiscal 2018–2019.

Case’s reaction 

In an interview with the Winsted Journal on Saturday, Feb. 11, State Rep. Jay Case (R-63) said, “Obviously, both sides of the aisle are very unhappy with a lot of the things that came out of the governor’s proposed budget.

“We feel that there is a better way to do this. Obviously, some towns are winners and some towns are losers. Even across the board, when you kill one town’s $12 million because they’ve done good budgeting over the years, that’s not fair to try to make up for the larger cities that didn’t do good budgeting. 

“We have a long way to go and we have until June to set the budget.”

Case said that state representatives are meeting in subcommittees to go over the governor’s proposed budget.

“Hopefully, we will come out with a bipartisan budget,” Case said. “I don’t know if that will happen, but we want to do what is right for the people of Connecticut and look over the people in the Northwest Corner. 

“There are different things that are being done to the ECS funds. [Malloy] is giving out direct numbers for special-education town aid. It’s all a numbers game, and I really have to look into the details to make sure things are truthful and make sense. Right now they don’t.”

Case criticized Malloy’s plan to make towns and cities pay for one-third of teacher’s pensions.

“Why have we never funded it properly at the state level, as it was set up to be done?” Case said. “Once again, we are passing off to the budgets of the smaller municipalities. That hits hard.”