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February 1, 2024

Lamont’s modest revisions to CT budget quickly draw protests

MARK PAZNIOKAS / CTMIRROR.ORG Student nurses listening to Gov. Ned Lamont say he will waive initial licensing fees for them. A promise to increase day care spending at the expense of other education programs did not play as well.

Constrained by a pledge to not increase spending, Gov. Ned Lamont is rolling out modest initiatives for the coming legislative session, including a bump in day care spending that would require a cut in education funding, quickly drawing howls of protests.

The difficulty in offering new services within fiscal guardrails that Lamont sees as sacrosanct became evident Wednesday as the governor announced the first of his budget proposals — a $3.5 million cut in licensing fees — and teased out a few details about more money for day care.

Standing outside simulated hospital rooms at the University of Hartford’s nursing program, Lamont announced he would eliminate the application fees for the initial license required for nurses, teachers and child care workers.

He and his top budget official, Jeff Beckham, then discussed an intention to double a $50 million increase for day care spending already in the second year of the two-year budget approved last spring.

“Jeff’s using some magic, so I think we’ll be able to double that increase,” Lamont said.

But there is no magic. 

Budgeting is at best a zero-sum game this year, and Beckham acknowledged that most or all of the additional money would come from the $150 million in enhanced education funding that was negotiated last year and scheduled to become available on July 1, the start of the next fiscal year.

Rep. Jeff Currey, D-East Hartford, co-chair of the Education Committee, said any proposal to divert the money committed to education after careful negotiation with him and municipal stakeholders would be a betrayal reflecting on the governor and his staff.

“Unfortunately, the governor has not kept his word,” Currey said. “The only thing you bring with you into the legislature is your word.”

“The governor was never really on board, so I’m not surprised his administration is trying to find unique ways to claw back that funding,” said Joe DeLong, the executive director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities,

The $150 million in additional education spending earmarked for the next fiscal year includes $68 million for the Education Cost Sharing program — the state’s chief operating grant to local districts — with another $82 million spread across several areas, primarily for regional magnet schools and a lesser amount for charter schools.

Beckham said the ECS money would not be touched but declined to offer details on what would be cut, other than noting the final number on spending for magnet and charter schools would change.

Nearly $54 million is now slated to go to magnet schools, which bill communities for each of their children sent to a magnet. But the 2023 legislation also caps the tuition that magnets can charge.

So if Lamont wants to repurpose some of those funds, he could remove money from the schools, restore their ability to charge towns higher tuition or both.

Charter schools, slated to receive $9.4 million under this legislation, cannot bill towns. If their funding were cut under the governor’s proposal, the schools would have to make up that loss.

The education enhancements also included $11.4 million for Open Choice, a diversity program that allows urban students to attend public schools in nearby suburban towns and $7.2 million for vocational agri-science schools.

Agri-science schools, though, also face a new cap on tuition next fiscal year.

The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, a strong advocate the 2023 education spending measure, remains optimistic that legislators won’t accept the shift, DeLong said. 

The executive director of the School + State Finance Project, an education policy think-tank that worked with legislators to craft the 2023 measure, said the governor’s proposal is unnecessary, given the nearly $650 million surplus his administration is projecting for the current fiscal year.

“You should not be pitting early child care versus education,” Lisa Hammersley said.

She said weakening these programs won’t help the governor’s economic development goals.

“Strangling local public school districts is contradictory to your desire to have an educated workforce,” she said.

Lamont said that “upping our ante on day care and child care” were a priority, because it helps parents either keep working or re-enter a workforce desperately in need of additional labor.

“It’s a double winner for me. It helps people get back to work. And it gives that kid that very best head start,” Lamont said.

The governor is scheduled to address the General Assembly on Feb. 7,  the opening day of the 2024 session, and propose revisions to the second year of the biennial budget.

The fee reduction proposed Wednesday would cancel fees ranging from $15 to $200 with a focus on young professionals just out of college.

“Right now, there are many job openings in essential fields that employers need to fill, and by eliminating these licensure application fees, we can help encourage those seeking employment to consider entering a career in these sectors,” Lamont said. “I am hopeful that legislators will agree and vote to approve these fee reductions.”

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