Amid one-two punch of Trump funding cuts and tariffs, CT in ‘fight of our lives’

Hartford Courant – Sunday, April 6, 2025
By Christopher Keating

As they battle against a one-two punch of budget cuts and steep tariffs, Connecticut Democrats say they have never seen it this bad.

In addition to cuts in federal funding for education and public health, consumers are also bracing for the impact of tariffs that prompted a massive global sell-off in the stock market and raised concerns about increased prices for food, cars, and jet engines that are assembled in East Hartford.

The cuts by President Donald Trump’s administration include $175 million for public health programs in Connecticut, plus more in education, as Gov. Ned Lamont and the state legislature are preparing to plug any upcoming holes in the state budget. In the short term, lawmakers can cover some costs by using the $4 billion rainy day fund that has accumulated over years of surpluses, but officials are concerned about uncertainty at a time when economists say the chances of a national recession are increasing sharply.

Nationally, trillions of dollars were lost in the stock market on Thursday and Friday, and Connecticut relies on the stock market more than many other states to fuel budget surpluses that had become common during the booming Wall Street years.

Even with a large rainy day fund, Lamont said that replacing all of the potential federal cuts is not possible.

“We can’t afford possibly to repay every dime that the feds could take away from us,” Lamont said in Hartford when asked by The Courant. “We are trying to set our priorities and make sure that the most vulnerable are taken care of.”

State Attorney General William Tong fought back in recent days by filing a lawsuit with 22 fellow Democratic attorneys general against the Trump administration and national health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to stop $11 billion in cuts nationwide that the lawsuit says were made “abruptly and arbitrarily” with no advance warning.

Connecticut’s share of the total includes $175 million for grants to the public health department and funds for newborn screenings, childhood immunizations, and surveillance of disease outbreaks, among others. In addition to public health, the grants cover mental health and addiction services.

After seven years as state attorney general and 12 years in the state legislature, Tong said the federal cuts and the chaos in Washington, D.C. are unprecedented.

“I have never seen it this bad,” Tong told reporters and legislators at the state Capitol complex in Hartford. “I doubt anybody here has seen it this bad. We’re in the fight of our lives right now. Not a day goes by where there isn’t an attack on Connecticut families, children, on education, on health care, defunding the police, making us less safe, more sick. … We have to fight every fight, and they’re not optional.”

The cuts to health programs, including childhood immunizations, mobile vaccination clinics, and testing for viruses, Tong said, will “Make America Sick Again.”

Tong added, “This is the latest lawsuit in what has become, by this president, a war on health care, a war on public safety, a war on America’s children. What it really means is right now in America, the president is hurting a heckuva lot of people.”

But House Republican leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford and other Republicans say that the Democrats are exaggerating the impacts. After checking with nonpartisan budget analysts, Candelora said that no federal cuts have been enacted yet in Connecticut.

“These guys can say whatever they want to try to score political points,” Candelora told The Courant. “The reality is their messaging is not going to align with reality. The cuts that they point to at [public health] was COVID money. Those were grant dollars that were never meant to be permanent, and they are acting as if they are permanent. Those were COVID, federal funds that were used to manage the pandemic. As the federal government is trying to get our deficit under control, they’re going to be clawing back certain programs. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party enjoys spending money with no repercussions.”

In Hartford, Candelora said he is more concerned about over-spending in the $26 billion state budget during the current fiscal year that ends on June 30. Lamont has directed the state budget director to pull in the reins on hiring and overtime for the final three months of the fiscal year so that the state does not violate its spending cap.

“The reality is their hyperbole doesn’t match the fiscal reality of the state of Connecticut,” Candelora said. “All these guys care about is scoring political points and using Trump as the boogeyman. Meanwhile, they’re not tending to their own obligations to govern and manage the state of Connecticut.”

The legislature’s finance and tax committees will be making recommendations in the coming weeks on Lamont’s proposed budget, and the legislature intends to finalize the new, two-year spending plan before the legislative session ends in early June.

Tong needing help

When he is asked what he needs to continue the legal struggle against Trump, Tong says he needs more lawyers and resources to battle in court. But he said he needs something else.

“We need Republicans,” Tong said. “We need Republicans here in Hartford and across the state of Connecticut. This is not partisan. Yes, the president is Republican. I’m a Democrat. But take all that aside, I would still have to fight these fights no matter what party labels we wore.”

He added, “To my Republican friends, these are your constituents, too. I know you love this state, so join with us in this fight. Stand up to this president and fight for Connecticut.”

Candelora responded, “I’m more than happy to stand at the podium and fight for programs I believe in. But when they’re coming to the podium and complaining about grant money that was expiring anyway, I have a hard time trying to support it. They’re acting as if these programs were meant to go on forever.”

Education

The most recent education cutbacks include a freeze of $14 million in federal funding, including a loss of nearly $775,000 in Bridgeport, the state’s largest city.

The state Senate’s two top Democrats, President Pro Tempore Martin Looney of New Haven and majority leader Bob Duff of Norwalk, said that losing federal money will be a major problem.

“Pulling critical education funding is a reckless decision that will directly harm Connecticut’s students, teachers, and families,” the senators said. “Our cities and towns depend on these funds, and some have already allocated the money for their schools.”

State Sen. Herron Keyon Gaston, a Bridgeport Democrat, decried the $14 million freeze in federal funding, saying that Bridgeport would lose $763,841.

“Donald Trump’s draconian cuts to education undermine the future of our nation, our state, and our local school districts by diminishing access to quality learning opportunities for our students, weakening our public schools, and disproportionately harming our vulnerable communities,” Gaston said. “These reckless reductions prioritize short-term financial savings over long-term investments in the intellectual growth and development of young people, which ultimately stifles economic and social progress.”

State Sen. Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox, a Bridgeport Democrat, said the school cuts of nearly three quarters of a million dollars come on the heels of previous cuts by Trump of $155 million for public health.

“The hits just keep coming, and it is our most vulnerable residents who are bearing the brunt of the Trump administration’s ill-advised and destructive funding cuts,” she said. “After cutting millions to public health and addiction services, Donald Trump has now frozen millions more for Connecticut schools, including nearly $800,000 for Bridgeport. These cuts will devastate not just students, teachers, families but also municipal budgets and local taxpayers. These reckless cuts will affect communities and families across Connecticut, regardless of who they voted for, just to put more dollars back in the pockets of billionaires.”

While Lamont and legislators have made many complaints about Washington, D.C., Senate Republicans say the primary focus needs to be on Hartford.

“We have the third-highest property taxes in the U.S., the second-highest electricity rates in the U.S., and our regulatory burdens are not business-friendly,” said Senate Republican leader Stephen Harding of Brookfield. “Now, Gov. Lamont is pretending to feel the Connecticut business community’s pain? Focus on managing our state, governor. … Do something about sky-high electricity bills and the waste, fraud and abuse in your administration.”

Statewide, Tong noted that the education cuts touch a wide variety of programs.

“If you’re a special education student,” Tong told reporters, “if you’re a teacher, if you’re a school bus driver, good luck.”
Saturday protests

With opposition rising against Trump, organizers planned more than 20 protests in Connecticut on Saturday from Hartford to New Haven to Killingly to Danbury.

“Donald Trump and Elon Musk think this country belongs to them,” says an online flier. “They’re taking everything they can get their hands on — our health care, our data, our jobs, our services — and daring the world to stop them. This is a crisis, and the time to act is now.”

The protests have been increasing since Trump took office on Jan. 20, and advocates planned to return to the state Capitol in Hartford — the site of multiple recent demonstrations.

Tong, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, and others were scheduled at the “Hands off! Danbury Fights Back Rally” for an outdoor event, despite expected rain, in the largest single day of rallies across the country since Jan. 20.

Despite the expected large crowds, Candelora is not impressed as he wants Democratic legislators to obtain extensions to block the federal cuts in Connecticut by filing the proper paperwork.

“I do know they continue to run to the podium and make it about our president because it’s a great political talking point for them,” Candelora said. “What’s clear to me is that the Democrats are rooting for failure for this entire country, and I think it’s not a good look when you’re rooting for failure.”

Budget surplus in short term

Despite the economic headwinds, Connecticut is currently in a stable financial position in the short term. The latest estimates from state Comptroller Sean Scanlon are that the general fund will have a surplus of $396.4 million for the current fiscal year that ends on June 30. In addition, the once-troubled Special Transportation Fund, which has rolled up surpluses in recent years, is headed toward a surplus of $157.5 million in the current fiscal year.

“As we head into a potential economic downturn, and with millions of dollars of federal cuts to our state being announced on a weekly basis, our budget and economy are in for a period of unpredictability and turbulence,” Scanlon said. “Thanks to our fiscal discipline, we are fortunately positioned, to a certain extent, to protect people and our state from this painful reality. As comptroller, I’m working closely with the governor and legislature to track what is happening and to plan for how we can navigate this difficult period.”

Other cuts

In addition, Trump is also making planned cuts in Connecticut of nearly $3 million from the federal National Endowment for the Humanities.

“There is no aspect of American life that Donald Trump and his Republican administration have left unscathed in their venal desire to give tax breaks to their billionaire buddies,” said Sens. Looney and Duff. “Veterans, health care, education, home heating assistance for seniors, and now arts groups and museums have all fallen victim to his knife. And there is no end in sight to the pain and destruction that Donald Trump and Republicans will inflict on Connecticut and the nation in order to reward billionaires while trampling middle-class Americans underfoot.”

The administration has also withheld $1.9 million from Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, which provides primary care, family planning and abortion services.

The state legislature, however, voted to provide funding to Planned Parenthood in early March in anticipation of upcoming cuts by the Trump administration. Sen. Matt Lesser, a Middletown Democrat, said that Trump “is making a boogeyman out of essential care providers like Planned Parenthood and cutting their federal funding, essentially ensuring that access to care is defunct.”

The latest grant was $800,000, which was in addition to previous grants.

“Giving more taxpayer money, even one cent, let alone $800,000, to those in the abortion business is truly tragic,” Chris Healy, executive director of Connecticut Catholic Public Affairs Conference, said at the time.

Planned Parenthood, Healy said, had also received an additional $3 million at the end of the 2024 legislative session. The organization, he said, is the largest abortion provider in the state, adding that more than half of the abortions “are fully funded by state taxpayers under the Medicaid program” for low-income women.

As the lawsuits continue in the coming weeks and months, Tong said that he and his fellow attorneys general will continue fighting in a battle that will not stop in the short term.

“We had to sue to stop the president and Linda McMahon, from Connecticut, by the way, from dismantling the department of education,” Tong said. “I have personally gone to court in New York City to stop Elon Musk and his army of wannabee storm troopers and hackers from tearing up the federal government. They’re trying to take apart Medicaid and Social Security.”

Tong added, “Anywhere, any place, any time, we will be there — fighting for the people of this state because we have to, because we are in the fight of our lives.”

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