Even though his agency’s funding was cut by 12 percent, Ed Dombroskas, executive director of the Eastern Regional Tourism District, has emerged from the state budget process feeling … renewed.

“Considering that at the start of the process we were being zeroed out, we did pretty well,” Dombroskas said Friday, about 36 hours after the Senate’s last-minute adoption of a two-year spending plan.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who has yet to sign the package, launched the budget process in February, unveiling a proposal that called for the elimination of funding for the state’s three regional tourism districts and cuts in funding for a number of attractions and cultural programs.

In April, the legislature’s Appropriations Committee restored much of the money, including $503,150 for the eastern district in each of the 2016 and 2017 fiscal years, a sum representing a 9.8 percent reduction in the $557,800 originally appropriated for the district in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.

If Malloy’s cut had been sustained, Dombroskas would have had to shut down his office at the end of the month.

The budget the House and the Senate approved this week cut the district’s fiscal 2016 funding further, to $489,520 and restored it to $503,150 in fiscal 2017.

“We can work with that and still be very effective,” Dombroskas said. “It requires us to re-examine what we do and how we do it. Effectively, it’s a reduction in dollars for paid media advertising. We’ll have to focus more on online services, advertising that is less costly.”

He said the district likely will seek savings on the cost of mailing visitor’s guides to those who make inquiries about the region’s attractions.

Mystic Aquarium, which Malloy’s proposal also would have defunded, will receive $517,308 in fiscal 2016, a 12 percent reduction in the $589,106 it was originally supposed to receive this year. It’s funding will climb to $531,668 in fiscal 2017.

The budget sets funding for statewide marketing, including the “Still Revolutionary” advertising campaign, at $9.5 million in each of the next two fiscal years, down from the $10 million Malloy proposed and from the $12 million originally allocated for this year.

Dombroskas sighed in relief.

“Everyone recognized the state has a fiscal problem and that everyone had to be a contributor to the solution,” he said. “Once our line was zeroed out, we knew we had to make the case that we deserved funding. We did that by having people in the industry tell legislators what the district means to them. They did that at public hearings and through literally hundreds of letters and phone calls to individual legislators.”

The budget also preserved funding for the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival, a New London event being sponsored by the OpSail organization. The festival, Sept. 9-12, is part of “Connecticut’s Coast Guard Summer,” a celebration of the Coast Guard’s 225th birthday and the Coast Guard Academy’s 100 years in New London.

Bruce MacDonald, the festival’s chief operating officer, said the budget earmarks $170,000 for the festival, which also is being funded by private donations. He said state Rep. Ernest Hewett, D-New London, was instrumental in securing the funding.

“Rep. Hewett led the charge for the festival and for New London,” MacDonald said. “Frankly, it couldn’t have happened without his efforts.”

Another of Hewett’s initiatives during the legislative session, his co-sponsorship of a bill concerning the submission of late claims for lottery prizes, was less successful. The bill, which addressed the case of Clarence Jackson, a Hamden man who failed to claim a $5.8 million jackpot within a year’s time in 1996, was defeated in a 13-12 committee vote.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com

Twitter: @bjhallenbeck