To some Connecticut’s fiscal guardrails, implemented in 2017 to cap spending, pose a safety net against deficits; to others they shortchange needs of residents in areas of education, social services and child care.
In recent years, Connecticut has amassed significant surpluses. Many Democratic legislators want to adjust guardrails on behalf of priority funding. One of those is House Speaker Matt Ritter who is calling on Governor Ned Lamont to adjust his rigid position with the start of the legislative session January 8.
More on this from Alex Putterman, CT Post:
As the session approaches, the guardrails have stoked tension at the Capitol. In an interview this week, Speaker of the House Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, criticized the Lamont administration for taking a hard-line posture on the issue instead of reaching a deal Ritter views as inevitable.
“The longer it takes people to strike a deal, because they think it gives them leverage, the harder the session will be for everybody,” Ritter said. “The reality is, you can make a minor tweak in February, put it in the budget and be done.”
Ritter said he expects legislators and the governor’s office to eventually reach a deal to adjust the guardrails in a way that enables “major investments” in child care, special education and other areas. The main question, he said, is the timeline.
“The fact that we’re going to be negotiating this thing until May is just idiocy,” Ritter said.
Full story here
Do not adjust! Would be doing such a disservice to younger generations who will have to face the tax burden of borrowing. Many of the surpluses are drying up after Covid.
Better to be extra-conservative now than discover that the Trump Administration is going to make drastic cuts to state aid later, leaving states short on critical funding for vital safety-net programs — which he and Elon Musk-0x have promised to do. Lamont, a Republicrat, to be sure, is correct at this point in time. Ritter is showing his typical, short-sighted, Speaker-brat, entitled arrogance… We are entering what is probably a long, Four-year Winter in national politics, and states will need to be ready for the fiscal exigencies that will be created by the pin-headed, greed-deranged, mean-spirited gang of scumbags that are in control in DC now…. (In the meantime, Lamont should get a challenger to replace Ritter as Speaker…).