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In an emergency special session, the General Assembly passed measures to aid municipalities and cut $72 million from the budget. That is about $14 million less than what Governor Rell had proposed.
The General Assembly rebuffed the governor’s call to cut $1.1 million to fund medical interpreters for non-English speaking patients. And Democrats in the House of Representatives abandoned a proposal to seize $13.8 million in unclaimed bottle deposits from distributors.
They made up for part of that with $5 million pulled out of the fund for the public financing of elections.
In all, the bill saves about $72 million.
That did not satisfy Republican legislators, who pointed to the immense deficits that are looming.
“We are bleeding financially, and we’re handing out band aids.”
Craig Miner is a Republican from Litchfield. He pointed to the ever-gloomier deficit projections for the year. After this bill, the hole will still stand at around $261 million this year, and it is forecast to reach about $6 billion in the two years after that.
“We can’t cover that by introducing new revenue. The federal government can’t cover that by introducing new revenue. We need structural changes in our budget.”
House Republicans introduced a series of unsuccessful amendments, including an offer of early retirement plan for state employees and an increase in the governor’s ability to make mid-year cuts to agency budgets.
House Appropriations Chairwoman Denise Merrill spoke against all of them, repeatedly arguing that they had policy implications that warranted more study during the regular legislative session come January.
That was also the rationale of Senator Jonathan Harris, who was a defender of funding for medical interpreters. The bill mandates that the state make language interpretation a covered Medicaid service by the end of June, which Harris points out will use federal dollars to offset the cost.
“To sit and to cut something that we know works, something that we know keeps people healthy. That doesn’t make sense. And we need to start thinking larger and making sure that we don’t cut off our nose to spite our face.”
The General Assembly also authorized tax amnesty programs at the municipal and state levels to try to bring in delinquent taxes. Municipalities will also be able to pool together to make purchases through the state.
Finally, lawmakers strengthened protections for renters who get caught up in foreclosure. The new legislation will prevent tenants from being evicted for at least 30 days after their landlord’s property is foreclosed.
This was likely be the last action of this lame duck legislature. A new legislature will consider Governor Rell’s proposed biennial budget during the next session.
