Senate Democrats offer new budget plan, no election fund cut
Hartford — Majority Democrats in the Connecticut Senate on Thursday backed off some of the party's earlier ideas for balancing the state budget, including suspending the public campaign funding program for next year's legislative elections.
The caucus also embraced an idea proposed by the General Assembly's GOP: offering a retirement incentive program for state employees.
"The Senate Democratic Caucus believes that it is vitally important that we come to the table with a proposal that makes achievable structural changes to our budget," said Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, D-New Haven.
He said the plan reduces the state's bottom line by $350 million in 2016, which is approximately the shortfall that legislators estimate in the $20 billion budget.
The revised plan comes days after the House and Senate Democrats released a joint plan to fix the projected budget gap. House Democratic leaders voiced concern Thursday about the proposed retirement incentive, but they agreed with their colleagues about fully funding the campaign financing program.
"We are confident that we will be able to find the necessary funds to close the deficit gap without affecting our landmark campaign finance program that has brought clean elections to the citizens of Connecticut," said House Speaker Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, and House Majority Leader Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, in a joint statement.
Among the new changes offered Thursday, Senate Democrats proposed restoring funding to the state's rainy-day fund, vocational and technical schools, behavioral health services, transportation programs and needy public schools. The plan also promises $163 million in savings over two years from a new retirement incentive program, but no details were provided.
Legislative Republicans have proposed a retirement incentive only for employees now eligible to retire that would save $175.5 million over two years. While GOP leaders said they welcomed the Senate Democrats' proposed changes, including the retirement incentive proposal, House Democratic leaders warned such programs "can wreak havoc on long-term fiscal health."
Various advocacy groups welcomed the news that $11.7 million would be restored to the Citizens Election Program. Common Cause of Connecticut, the State Elections Enforcement Commission, former Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell and others had publicly balked at the proposal to suspend the program for the 2016 elections. SEEC issued an unusual joint resolution Tuesday, warning that such a move would set the program "on course for permanent underfunding."
Legislative leaders and Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy have been meeting privately to come up with a plan to close the current budget shortfall and address long-term fiscal problems. A special legislative session on the midyear budget changes may be held next month.
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