Democrats pitch state spending plan with education increases

HARTFORD — The legislature’s budget-writing committee, led by Democrats, released their vision of state spending for the next two years.

Unlike Gov. Ned Lamont’s budget which tackled both spending and revenue, the thick binder distributed to lawmakers, lobbyists and journalists Tuesday morning contained no tax recommendations. The General Assembly’s Democrats will publish their revenue plan by Thursday.

Here are the highlights of the new state spending proposal:

Education

The committee recommended increasing funding for education grants to towns for public schools by nearly $38 million next fiscal year and $78 million in FY 2021. The governor’s budget did not include these increases, instead opting to keep the grants the same as currently appropriated.

Lawmakers also opted to provide about $9 million more to magnet and charter schools and after school programs than Lamont in FY 2020. They would send nearly $11 million more to those schools and programs the next year.

Both the committee and the governor also plan to cut funding to private schools to pay for health services. This would save the state nearly $3.5 million in each of the next two fiscal years.

Debt and bonding

Large portions of the state budget go toward paying off the state’s debt. Increased credit-worthiness of the state has resulted in lower than anticipated debt service payments. Thus, the committee eliminated $14.4 million that the governor had put toward debt service in FY 2020 and $64 million in fiscal year 2021.

With these savings, the committee decided to reject the governor’s proposed “debt diet” and keep general obligation bond issuance at current levels. These bonds — the state...

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