The promise of a $1,000 bonus for frontline workers who headed to work when everyone else was in the safety of their homes during the pandemic, what has been dubbed Hero Pay, has turned into quite a headache for state lawmakers recently, and now they're trying to fix it.
State Comptroller-elect Sean Scanlon will be one of the ones making sure those checks get to people who qualify when he takes office in January.
Mike Hydeck: So let's talk about the Hero Pay program. Remind us, from the beginning how much money was set aside at first.
Sean Scanlon: We set aside $30 million. And that quickly became not enough money once we saw the applications pour in from all across the state from the people who had worked on the front lines during COVID. But it became clear two weeks ago when we released the final numbers showing that a lot more people had applied than originally anticipated.
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Mike Hydeck: Was that federal or state money that was set aside?
Sean Scanlon: It was state money from our state budget that we passed in May of this year.
Mike Hydeck: Okay, so our NBC Connecticut Responds consumer unit found there was a messaging concern about who was eligible. The website first had frontline workers could work part of the time that was listed on the website between March 2020 and May of this year. Then later, the website changed to say that you had to work the whole period of time. What happened with that messaging?
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Sean Scanlon: You know, I'm not the comptroller right now. So I can't speak for a decision that the current comptroller made when it came to that. All I know is that as the person who will have to send these checks, unless the legislature acted next week to add more money to it, I was going to be in the unfortunate position of having to prorate those checks, meaning that somebody who made under $100,000 a year on the frontlines of the pandemic, who was supposed to get $1,000, was only going to get $232. I drew attention to that. I'm glad that we added some more money to it. And obviously, I'm excited to get the people the money that they deserve. But we were going to have a problem if we didn't act. And I'm glad that we are.
Mike Hydeck: So now it seems like lawmakers are on board here. The governor is calling a special session to add money to the program. Where does that money come from? And do you think now because of this change, will more people qualify for the bonus?
Sean Scanlon: Well, $30 million of it is going to come from another program being run by the Comptroller's Office that was not really very popular. It's the Essential Workers Program that was very hard to understand. And not a lot of people applied for it. So $30 million will come from that. And then the other $30 million will come from the large budget surplus that we have right now of $2.8 billion in the current fiscal year.
Mike Hydeck: It is a staggering amount. And the receipts continue to be on the positive side of the ledger for our state. Currently, you're a state representative in Guilford before you take over as State Comptroller in January. Your Republican colleagues, speaking of that budget surplus, would like to use more of it for things like heating relief and helping families with utility rate hikes that are expected as we head into the wintertime. What's your position on that?
Sean Scanlon: Well, since day one of the inflation crisis, the state of Connecticut, under the leadership of the governor, under the leadership of the legislature, we've acted to try to make inflation less bad for people here in Connecticut. We didn't cause it, we can't stop it at the state level, we can just try to help our families out. And we've done that to the tune of the biggest tax cut in the history of the state as part of the budget that we passed in May. And we're going to do that again in that special session next week where we will once again cut the gas tax for three more months. We will add more money, millions and millions of dollars towards LIHEAP, which is the program that we do here in Connecticut to try to get seniors and people who are less fortunate some home heating oil help. And we'll do that through this program, right? Putting bonuses in the hands of the essential workers. Over 135,000 people in the state will get a thank-you check for their work during COVID. So the work continues. And that's what next week's special session is all about. We agree there's a problem and we're acting.
Mike Hydeck: Last question, what's your opinion on the guardrails that were set up for our budget from the 2017 bipartisan budget compromise, where the volatility index keeps how much money we're allowed to dig into? Should that be changed considering how well this program is going?
Sean Scanlon: I don't think so. The reason why people were talking about changing it is why we got into the mess that we're in in the first place. We have decades and decades and decades of bad decisions made by Democrats and Republicans that got us into a fiscal mess in Connecticut. And in the last five years, since we put those guardrails in place, we're now finally beginning to turn that around. We're paying down our pension debt. We're able to cut taxes. We're saving money, more than we've ever had before with a record $3 billion rainy day fund. Now is not the time to make the same mistakes of politicians of the past, where as soon as something starts working, we have money, we start moving in a different direction. We have to be disciplined. We have to commit to this so that my kids don't have the same problem that my generation and generations before me had. I'm fully with the governor when it comes to re-upping these and making them continue in the future. And I'm confident that people will see the wisdom in doing that because it's finally paying big dividends here, Mike.
