Housing, budget and Trump: What is ahead for Connecticut’s legislature

CT Insider – Tuesday, November 19, 2024
By Ken Dixon

Effects of the second coming of Donald Trump remain to be seen, but Connecticut lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are plotting their strategies for the upcoming long, 21-week legislative session that starts Jan. 8.

The chief goal is to create a new two-year budget, fueled by the likely continuance of positive revenues for second-term Gov. Ned Lamont. The so-called fiscal guardrails of 2017 that have poured $8 billion into the state’s under-funded pension plans for public school teachers and state employees while filling Connecticut’s emergency reserves, will likely be a focus.

With a 102-49 majority in the state House of Representatives and a 24-12 margin in the Senate, pending a recount in one district and possible court challenge in another, Democrats will continue to set the legislative agenda.

House Democrats have announced that three veteran lawmakers, Rep. Toni Walker of New Haven, Rep. Maria Horn of Salisbury and Rep. Steve Stafstrom of Bridgeport, will continue as chairs of the budget-writing Appropriations Committee, the tax-writing Finance Committee and the law-writing Judiciary Committee, respectively.

House Majority Leader Jason Rojas of East Hartford, who was recently reaffirmed for another two years by the Democratic caucus, intends to continue his advocacy for more housing in the state at a time where there are about 90,000 job openings and an equal need for new dwelling units. He’s noticed that more state residents, as well as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, realize and now accept the challenge.

“It’s become a more-salient position for people over the last year,” Rojas said. “This is long-term. There is also going to be a healthy discussion on child care. It’s one of those issues that, listening to voters, is really serious. I also think we’re going to have to go back to the issue of higher education.”

Lamont, who’s enjoyed annual surpluses since taking over a multi-billion-dollar deficit in 2018, will hold fast on maintaining the state’s budget constraints that have resulted in positive reviews from Wall Street financial rating agencies.

Lamont recently told reporters that he has asked his various state agency heads to work with the state’s Washington office to keep an eye on developments from the Trump administration. “How that will affect Connecticut and how that will affect our budget,” Lamont said. “I think you’re gonna still see the infrastructure money going along. I think a lot of the resilience money coming out of the (federal Inflation Reduction Act) will probably be cut back. So we’ll see how we can get to the front of the line there between now and January 20. Health care we think about a lot. I think a lot of the subsidies will go away.”

Last week, Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney of New Haven and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff of Norwalk offered to work with Lamont in anticipation of any measures from Congress and the next White House that would make life harder for blue states like Connecticut.

“Mr. Trump has already pledged to enact a variety of significant public policy and economic changes that will likely adversely impact the health and well-being of millions of Americans, including our constituents here in Connecticut,” the Democrats wrote. “Mr. Trump’s pledge to implement far-ranging tariffs and give large corporations free rein will severely harm Connecticut residents. We must leverage the buying power of states in the region to mitigate the forthcoming cost increases that will result from arbitrary and harmful tariffs. We need to band together in order to hold corporations to account that have consolidated power in so many areas, especially the food industry.”

The Senate leaders noted that Republican control in the U.S. House of Representatives already led to reductions in federal home heating assistance that is likely to be exacerbated when Trump takes office on January 20.

Shortly after election, Democrats led by Lamont, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Attorney General William Tong held a news conference in which they promised to keep the state’s reproductive rights in the forefront.

“Inherently, whatever party is in power nationally is always going to drive a certain narrative in the Connecticut legislature,” said state Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield. “Some things will be reasonable.” He noted that even though Kamala Harris carried the state’s seven electoral votes, Trump had solid support, particularly in urban areas and Fairfield County. “I think you see a Republican message resonating,” he said.

Duff said in a Thursday interview that the goals for the upcoming legislative session are to strengthen the state economy, increasing job opportunities and creating a balanced state budget.

“We’re in a strong position economically right now and it’s going to be important for Connecticut to stay that way,” Duff said. “We’re also going to have to put up a blue wall when it comes to fighting on social issues that Washington will be out of step with in relation to our own Connecticut values. We’re going to have to make sure we protect women’s rights, protect public health and public safety, protect the rights of anyone who might be discriminated against that includes people in the LGBTQ, African American and Latino communities.”

Harding said he thinks the 2025 legislative session will be a lot like this year, which was the second year of a $51-billion biennial budget.

“We want to reduce people’s electric bills,” Harding said in a phone interview. “That’s what members of our caucus hear when they knock on doors. Public safety is always a big issue, as well as affordability and making sure the cost of living does not increase further. Our constituents also support the fiscal guardrails and we’re glad that Gov. Lamont seems to be digging in his heels.”

The budgetary guardrails include built-in measures of inflation that could allow another $900 million in new spending under projections that House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, sees as a dangerous temptation at a time when the state lags far behind other New England states in providing local shares for federal Medicaid health care funding.

“Almost the sole beneficiaries of these caps have been state workers,” Candelora said on Friday. “Eight billion dollars have been poured into retirements and $7 billion has been paid out. State employees in recent years have seen 33-percent salary increases and we can’t continue that. Low Medicaid reimbursement rates are putting our medical care into crisis,” Candelora said. “The Office of Health Strategy should spend less time saying rates are good and look at the rates that need increase. We do get 50 percent reimbursement from the feds.” He said that health care for undocumented immigrants drives up costs for state residents at a time when the Medicaid pays 65 cents on the dollar, putting more of a strain on private insurers.

But state Sen. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, the co-chairman of the legislative Human Services Committee, said it’s crucial that undocumented children retain health benefits.

“It’s sad seeing Connecticut’s Republican legislators trying to remake themselves into MAGA ultra-Trumpers when almost all of them voted to provide health care for undocumented children, many of them more than once,” Lesser said in a Friday statement. “Republicans forget they supported this policy because of how important this is for Connecticut’s financially struggling small and rural hospitals burdened with the costs of uncompensated care. Never mind that this policy is the ethically sound decision, it makes fiscal sense too.”

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