With six days remaining in the Connecticut legislative session, Governor Ned Lamont and Democratic lawmakers are yet to reach an agreement on the state’s next $46 billion dollar, two-year budget.
Connecticut expects a $470 million budget surplus this year and $6 billion in federal relief money. So the disagreement is over spending, not revenue.
Lamont said he is concerned that about $650 million in new spending on municipalities as payments in lieu of taxes are placed outside the state’s spending cap.
“We've got a couple of issues around the edges. My door is always open and always has been. And I’m happy to have conversations. But I’m not going to play any games. It’s going to be a budget that’s balanced like our last budget was,” Lamont said.
Speaker Matt Ritter said his House Democratic caucus has already made a lot of concessions to Lamont including dropping proposals for new taxes on the wealthy.
“We are just stuck on this one thing but we have a time deadline. So it’s like the airplane is leaving and we have to hop on the airplane,” Ritter said.
Lamont declined to say whether he would veto a budget passed by lawmakers without his consent.
