Politics & Government

Legislature Passes $37.6 Billion Budget for 2013-15 and Guerrera Thinks It's Fair

Even though he doesn't love the budget, State Rep. says it does what it has to do to keep state from going backward. Controversial portions include keno approval, Medicaid accounting shift, aid cut for hospitals.

In a narrow vote late Monday, the state Senate passed a $37.6 billion budget for 2013-15, a day-and-a-half after the House approved the Democrat-authored spending plan.
 
After several hours of debate that lasted all afternoon Monday and ended at about 9:40 p.m. yielded a 19-17 for passage, House Bill 6704 now heads to the governor’s desk for a signature.

 Among other provisions, the budget:

  • Counts Medicaid dollars for the first time in a “net appropriation” fashion, shifting $6.3 billion over the two-year budget off the books.
  • Launches a keno lottery game
  • Spares cities and towns from significant cuts in aid
  • Funds an aggressive “Generation Next” expansion of UConn
  • Cuts aid to hospitals
  • Extends a $2.50-per-megawatt-hour tax on power plants for three months
  • Refinances operating debt from previous years
  • Spends more than $200 million in surplus funds
  • Shifts money from the transportation fund to the general fund
  • Expands education reform efforts put into place last year
Rocky Hill State Rep. Tony Guerrera says there are some good things and some bad in the budget.

"We took the car tax out of there and that was important to the towns like Rocky Hill," Guerrera said. "We were able to keep town aid and the ECS up to current levels and didn't have to make real drastic cuts. We had to look at every end of the spectrum to keep those important parts up to good levels and we were able to do it. 

"We are beginning to see things pick up. Revenues are increasing, if only slightly. We are hoping that the recession is behind us and here are signs that we are coming out of it. Home sales and real estate are showing signs of picking up and that's a good indictor that we're bouncing back as an economy. We are beginning to see the work force come back a little bit as well.

"Do I love this budget? No. There were some cuts made in the budget that will hurt people, we know that. But those are the tough decisions we are faced with at this time. But we were able to fund things at a level that puts me more at ease and should put the towns more at ease as well." 

The budget debate in the house began just after midnight Saturday night and ended around dawn Sunday with a 95-48 vote at about 5 a.m.
 
“Of course, no budget is perfect and this budget required many tough cuts, many tough choices and hard compromises.  We still have a long way to go,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who worked closely with Democratic legislators in crafting the budget, said in a statement after House approval. “But this budget shows that we’ve got our priorities straight, and we are determined to keep Connecticut moving forward.”
 
Several Republican senators, however, disagreed with the Democratic perspective during lengthy testimony on the Senate floor Monday afternoon and evening, picking apart the spending plan’s central tenets. The testimony was broadcast on CT-N.
 
Malloy has said he plans to sign the bill.

(Corey Fyke contributed to this story.)


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