State lawmakers voted for one of the year’s most important bills Tuesday after clashing over how to allocate $360 million in unspent federal funds.

After debating 4 1/2 hours, the state House of Representatives voted 103-48 with five Republicans breaking with their colleagues in voting for the package.

The measure went to the state Senate, which started debating at 7 p.m. Tuesday as lawmakers are scrambling to finish their work before the legislative session ends at midnight Wednesday.

The bulk of the money is earmarked for four key areas that were designated as high priorities by legislators in recent months. Those areas are public higher education, children’s mental health, cash aid for cities and towns, and $50 million for nonprofits that provide state services through contracts that traditionally cost less than those delivered by state employees.

While the total allocation is $360 million, that could be boosted to $400 million if the size of the state budget surplus becomes better than expected as of Oct. 1.

The 350-page bill also calls for an additional $80 million for the University of Connecticut and another $80 million for the Connecticut State University system as the universities have been lobbying heavily for months for more funding.

During public hearings and press conferences, educators and students have complained constantly in recent months about cutbacks at their institutions. But Rep. Tammy Nuccio of Tolland, the leading budget authority in the House Republican caucus, said the university supporters had been “spreading misinformation that we’re cutting their budget” when the schools actually will receive millions more.

“Every person in the room knows the higher eds are receiving more funding than they ever have,” Nuccio said on the House floor.

But state Rep. Toni Walker, a New Haven Democrat who co-chairs the budget-writing committee, countered that the “cost of living in Connecticut is much higher than ever before.”

“We’ll talk,” Nuccio responded.

On the House floor, Nuccio said that the state is making large subsidies to UConn of $23,409 per student when all funding is included, as well as $17,705 for every student in the Connecticut State University system. That compares, she said, to less than $5,000 per child for primary and secondary education under the all-important educational cost-sharing grant.

Stephanie Reitz, the chief spokeswoman for UConn, said the combined deficit for the university and the health center at the start of the session was projected at $150 million.

“Thanks to additional funding allocated for the university in the budget that will soon be taken up by the [Senate], it is clear that the shortfalls UConn and UConn Health will face next year will be substantially less than that original forecast,” Reitz said.

The latest update “unquestionably puts UConn and UConn Health in much better fiscal positions and the university is grateful for the additional support, particularly on behalf of our students,” Reitz said.

During nearly two hours of detailed inquiries on the spending plan, Nuccio questioned the amount of money that is being spent statewide on public school buses to get students to school. She noted that the rural town of Willington has 37 square miles and only 428 students.

“If we can find alternative ways to get our kids to school, I’m all for that,” Nuccio said.

Rep. Jeffrey Currey, an East Hartford Democrat who co-chairs the education committee, agreed.

“The costs of transportation are through the roof,” Currey said. “This is definitely a conversation to have.”

Budget or not

In a highly unusual move, Democrats said they were not reopening the second year of the two-year state budget that provides $26 billion to run the state in the fiscal year that starts on July 1. Instead, they said they were simply reallocating unspent federal funds that the state received during the coronavirus pandemic from the American Rescue Plan Act, also known as ARPA.

Lawmakers called for creating the new “Stabilization Support and ARPA Replacement Fund” that would be held by the state treasurer, separate from other funds.

In his wrap-up speech, House Republican leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford said the legislature was “completely ignoring” the fiscal guardrails that they had created in 2017 on a bipartisan basis that has led to payments of nearly $8 billion to pay down state pension debt.

“We have no idea if this violates the spending cap,” said Candelora, who opposed the bill. “We have no idea if this violates the revenue cap.”

Democrats, though, said flatly that they were not reopening the budget and not violating the guardrails.

“We’re not opening up the budget in the way we have in the past because we did a really good job on the two-year budget,” said House majority leader Jason Rojas, an East Hartford Democrat. “We know we’re primarily relying on ARPA dollars which will expire. … I don’t know that I see a wrong in that. … There are guardrails that everyone has espoused as sacrosanct.”

Senate Republican leader Stephen Harding of Brookfield and other lawmakers opposed the measure so strenuously that they called upon Lamont to veto the spending plan.

“Budget gimmicks are back in style under one-party Democrat rule at the state Capitol,” Harding said. “Democrats are setting Connecticut up for failure next year and beyond. They want to spend more than state government is allowed to spend. They want to give away legislative authority. And those responsible fiscal guardrails that Republicans fought to put in place in 2017? You can kiss those goodbye. What Democrats are proposing is irresponsible and disingenuous. We urge the governor to find his veto pen.”

Harding and Candelora sent a letter Tuesday to state Attorney General William Tong, asking for an official opinion on whether the bill was actually “a budget adjustment under our constitution and statutes.”

During the Senate debate Tuesday night, Sen. Eric Berthel, a Watertown Republican, said that following the fiscal guardrails is critical to avoid the “dangerous path” of “costly, irresponsible behaviors” of past tax increases during the tenure of then-Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

“We’re not making good decisions tonight,” Berthel said. “We still in Connecticut have some of the highest taxes in the country. … We are at a crossroad, and we should continue in the same direction we have been in. … In this bill, we’re going to take ARPA money that came to us for infrastructure and spending it somewhere else. … This document is setting Connecticut up for failure next year and beyond, and by failure I mean deficits.”

But Sen. Cathy Osten, a Sprague Democrat who co-chairs the budget committee, agreed with Berthel that ARPA is one-time money, but added, “We are not facing a fiscal calamity under any circumstances.”

She added, “There’s not $400 million in ongoing expenses here. I don’t see it.”

Sen. Tony Hwang, a Fairfield Republican, said that he was frustrated that a detailed budget document of 350 pages of “small-print reading” was dropped on lawmakers at 4:30 a.m. Monday as they prepared for the final three days of the legislative session. He said he wished that lawmakers had more time to evaluate and digest the document that was crafted at the sausage factory known as the state Capitol.

“It’s not even a budget. It’s an ARPA document,” Hwang said, adding that he was still unsure how he would vote. “It’s very, very hard to tell the people we represent that we’re transparent and accountable. … I wish we had a better way. … I’m not going to throw out the baby with the bath water. … We talk about federal ARPA money like it’s free money. We spent billions of it on every aspect of our lives during COVID. The money is there. If we don’t use it, it goes away. Poof!”

Batterson Park to reopen

Under the bill, drivers will now pay higher motor vehicle registration fees through the Passport to Parks program to help fund Batterson Park and Thames River Heritage Park. The fee will increase to $24 every three years from $15, an increase of $9 that some Republicans described as a tax that should not be raised.

Reopening Batterson, which is operated by Hartford but is in located in Farmington, has been among Ritter’s top priorities. Ritter now says he has done everything that he can in recent years.

“My message to city hall is we are done. We have done our job. Get the park open,” Ritter told reporters firmly Tuesday. “You have all the money and resources you need. Get it open, and let kids start enjoying it. Don’t call us again, please.”

The Hartford-owned park, which straddles the New Britain and Farmington borders, has been in limbo for year. The once-busy park has been closed to the general public since 2015 when Hartford halted paying for maintenance. The various false starts need to end, lawmakers said, and the park needs to finally reopen. One of the problems is that relatively few Hartford residents use the park because it is miles away from the capital city. But lawmakers say it is an important resource that children can still enjoy during the summer.

The park, Ritter says, can have a renaissance to return to its glory days of decades ago when it was known as a summer oasis.

HUSKY health insurance cuts

While many groups would receive increases under the overall spending plan, advocates said that the 350-page bill would change the law and hurt thousands of low-income disabled patients and older adults by denying them access to Medicaid. The proposed change in the law for HUSKY C recipients would change the income limits as of Oct. 1 and cause them to accumulate higher medical debts or simply not receive medical care because it would be too expensive.

The measure “lowers the income limit for HUSKY A parents and caretaker relatives from 155%” of the federal poverty level to 133%, according to a nonpartisan analysis.

The Stop HUSKY Health Discrimination Coalition, which includes 16 groups, said, “In negotiating this bill, legislative leaders and the governor ignored the democratic legislative process designed to get public input: The Human Services Committee, which has cognizance over the Medicaid program, affirmatively rejected both of these cuts as contained in the governor’s proposed budget, after a full public hearing. The bill exacerbates health disparities both for people with disabilities and for Black and Brown people, disregarding [state law] which required the governor to explain how his proposals would help reduce — not worsen — health disparities.”

The federal money needs to be allocated by year’s end, but the money does not need to be actually spent until the end of 2026.

Health care ‘rat’ deleted

Lawmakers also deleted a controversial section of the bill that was discovered Monday morning as a new provision that volunteer directors of some quasi-public agencies could receive state employee health care benefits. Republicans and Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration raised concerns about the issue that was buried in the bill and described at the Capitol as a “rat.”

A “rat” is a term used by legislators for a narrowly written piece of legislation that is traditionally crafted in the final days of the session for highly connected insiders whose names are not mentioned in the bill. A “rat” often benefits a single person and is purposely buried in a large, complicated bill with the hope that tired legislators will overlook it during the final days of the session. The beneficiary, Republicans say, is often a longtime, well-connected Democratic insider with personal ties to the legislature because the party dominates the General Assembly  and controls the writing of key bills.

In this case, members of the Connecticut Port Authority and other quasi-publics could “participate in the state employee health insurance plan if they meet certain criteria,” according to a nonpartisan analysis. The measure, though, was excised from the bill Tuesday.

Municipal aid

Besides the traditional municipal aid that includes more than $2 billion annually for local schools, the package includes additional municipal aid of $12 million for Danbury, $7 million for Bridgeport, $5.5 million for Waterbury, $5 million for Norwalk, $4 million for New Britain, $2 million for Stamford, and $1.5 million for New Haven.

Other projects include $600,000 for fire hydrant and road improvements in Milford, $250,000 for Clinton town beach, $200,000 for expansion of Charter Oak Park West in Manchester, $300,000 for pickleball courts and clubhouse improvements at the Westwoods recreation complex in Farmington, $300,000 for football and soccer fields in Shelton, $100,000 for Lighthouse Point Park and $50,000 for East Shore Park. The package also covers $400,000 for elevators at the Greenwich Library.

Sen. Heather Somers, a Groton Republican, told colleagues on the Senate floor that too much money was going to the cities and not enough was going to eastern Connecticut. She decried tourism money going to Wethersfield when she said not enough state money was going to the tourism-heavy areas of eastern Connecticut.

The spending includes $650,000 for climate initiatives, along with money for a wide variety of projects.

Among other items, lawmakers intend to allocate $1.379 million for voting access, $1 million for early voting, and $1 million for legal representation for tenant eviction, among others. The package includes $5 million for the Shoreline East railroad that carries riders seven days a week between New Haven and New London.

Public health initiatives

The package includes $3 million for Planned Parenthood, which Ritter said would be included.

On other health initiatives, the package calls for $800,000 for school-based health care, $200,000 for the Fair Haven community health center in a low-income section of New Haven, $350,000 for the Cheshire health district, and $10,000 for water testing at the Branford East Shore District health department.

Nonprofits, which have been battling for years at the state Capitol for more funding, were pleased because they received an additional $50 million even though they had sought more and will be back in the future to plead their case.

Regarding children, the spending plan includes $18.8 million for Care4Kids child care for low and moderate-income families, $10 million for children’s behavioral health, and $7 million for urgent crisis centers.