Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont and key legislative leaders have reached a deal to allocate millions of dollars in emergency funding for special education and nonprofits.
The House and Senate are expected to vote on it on Wednesday.
“I’m glad that we could reach an agreement between my office and legislative leaders on increasing funding for special education and nonprofits during this current fiscal year, provided we maintain our surplus,” Lamont said in a statement. “I am hopeful that the legislature will vote on this updated bill so that I can sign it into law.”
Last week, the legislature initially passed emergency funding for $40 million for special education and nearly $3 million for nonprofits while Lamont was away on an economic development trip in India. Lamont wasn’t happy with that — he wanted legislators to stick to the budget and didn’t want them making money decisions without him in the loop.
So, Lamont said he would veto it. In response, House Speaker Matt Ritter (D-Hartford) said the chamber would vote to override that veto.
But last night, Lamont, Ritter and other key Democratic leaders came to an agreement.
“The most significant difference is that the law clarifies that the money will be paid upon the consensus revenues that come out statutorily at the end of April, confirming that there is an operating surplus with enough funds to distribute the grants,” Ritter said.
A two-thirds vote in the House and Senate could have overridden the veto. The deal, Ritter said, got the money passed in a more “amicable” way — without legislators having to worry about alienating the governor.
“You have freshmen calling us, ‘If I vote to override, will I ever get a bond project?’”
While Democrats were happy with the deal, some of their Republican colleagues were not. House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora (R-North Branford) said it set a dangerous precedent for spending outside the spending cap.
“I have never seen a governor in my life veto a bill and within three hours change his mind and cut a deal that does the exact same thing we voted on last week, but it violates the principles of the fiscal guardrails that we put in place,” Candelora said before the House vote began.
“I wish this governor would come back to Connecticut, stop with the junkets, stop reliving childhood dreams of giving out medals to rock stars, and get in this building and actually govern, because the process matters,” Candelora continued.
