Face the Facts: House Republicans Release Budget Plan for Conn. Taxes, Spending

Rep. Vincent Candelora (R-North Branford) discusses the Republican budget plan and where both parties are in agreement.

Mike Hydeck: Well, the governor and the finance and appropriations committees have all weighed in how they think Connecticut's budget should be written for the next two years. Now, House Republicans have released their plan on taxes and spending, keeping in mind we have another near record surplus projected for state coffers. So who should get more money? Where should the state keep the purse strings tight? Joining me now is Republican leader in the House Vincent Candelora to discuss exactly that. Mr. Candelora, good to see you. Welcome back to Face the Facts.

Vincent Candelora: Thanks for having me.

Mike Hydeck: So let's start with one of the things that keeps coming up. You first applauded the bipartisan decision to keep the guardrails in place for the next five years. I'd like to start with the child tax credit. Your plan proposes about $2,000 per child. Can we afford that?

Vincent Candelora: Yeah, we're looking at sort of mirroring our tax code to the federal government. We're one of a few states that don't do that. So we want families to be able to take a deduction if they have children, just like you do at the federal level. And that proposal, depending on how it's adopted, ranges from about $28 million to $56 million, and I think it's something we could do.

Mike Hydeck: And that would be every child, regardless of your income level?

Vincent Candelora: That's right. It would be a flat reduction for anyone with a family, across the board.

Mike Hydeck: So the governor's plan initially reduces the income taxes at each level. And boy, do we have a complicated tax system. Seven different, I think, tiers or something like that. So where would you like to see that change? Are you happy with those percentages? Would you change it? If you could?

Vincent Candelora: Yeah, I mean, we would love to see a 1% reduction across the board. But we did mirror what the governor proposed. A year ago, we wanted to see this go into play. So the one difference between our proposal and the governor's is that we are asking for it to be backdated to January 1 of 2023. So people could take an entire year of a reduced tax bracket.

Mike Hydeck: And then how would that be metered out? Would it just be checks get sent out? If that were to go?

Vincent Candelora: Well, it would only apply for the income this year. So we wouldn't need to do anything. It would it would come into play when people file for their taxes next year.

Mike Hydeck: What's the likelihood of that moving forward, do you think?

Vincent Candelora: I think it's going to be a sticking point. It's roughly over $300 million dollars. So it's a lot of money in the surplus years that would come out of this year's budget. So that one's gonna be a tough, row to hoe.

Mike Hydeck: And yeah, and the surplus is often talked about. Both the Governor and the Office of Policy and Management secretary say state colleges and universities are including one-time federal funding in their budgets and thinking it should be a regular line item. They dispute that. This has been going back and forth between the parties. What's your take on it?

Vincent Candelora: Yeah, I mean, we have a bigger problem that we need to address with our university systems. We have declining enrollment in some institutions. Some are doing okay. So I think we need a broad brush look at our higher ed system. And look at where we could find efficiencies. You know, an institution like Central Connecticut State University is running in the black, but WestConn is not. And so we really just need to look at each of their budgets and say, 'How can we make them more sustainable on an ongoing basis,' putting aside all the federal money they got.

Mike Hydeck: But colleges and universities had a consolidation plan that was underway. That helped save a little money. Is there more that can be done there?

Vincent Candelora: It did, but we have to do more. Our community college system overall is looking for $100 million a year they're running in deficit. So we really have to get back at that plan and take a look because what we're doing right now isn't working.

Mike Hydeck: So cities and towns are clamoring for relief as well. Now we know bigger picture, they got federal pandemic money. They got a recent infusion of cash when it comes to improving HVAC in schools. There's infrastructure money in play here. There are plenty of reports out there, both nationally and locally, that all this money's not getting spent. How do you feel about that? And where do you stand on more funding for local governments?

Vincent Candelora: Yeah, I mean, I think there is a pent up slow spending of all that money. So I think that is correct. The money hasn't yet been spent. I do think we need to look at our education formula. And in particular, funding the special education needs, have the state fully fund its portion. So there are areas that we could, in the budget I think, justifiably put more money into education that will go down to to our towns and provide some level of relief for them. But we have to sort of reinvent some of our educational institutions. These kids still are suffering from the COVID shutdowns. And they do need that funding to help bring them back up to par.

Mike Hydeck: And if you have any kids, you know, whether it's socially or it's math or science, you live it. And I have kids so I understand what you're talking about. Special education is a difficult thing to quantify and qualify because needs are different per child. Can you look at numbers across the state on how many special education students we have and make an average of how much it would cost to fund it properly?

Vincent Candelora: What we're focused on is there's an excess cost formula. And the state never fully funds that. So what we're saying is, we know that's a tougher issue to tackle, but we at least should be paying our share of the excess cost, which is about $25 million. So that's something I think in a year with with surpluses, that we could just fulfill our minimum obligation for special ed.

Mike Hydeck: Last question. Some people have hinted they want to do a revenue intercept, which means you pay for something before the budget process starts so it's out of the budget guardrails. What's your thought on that?

Vincent Candelora: Yeah, no, I think that's a disaster. You know, if somebody wanted intercepts, then we should have had a conversation about that before we passed those fiscal guardrails. So to pass them and then try to maneuver around them is just, it's disingenuous. It's not a good look for the state of Connecticut. I think we need to stay away from that.

Mike Hydeck: All right. Vincent Candelora thanks so much for joining us on Face the Facts. Good to see you once again. Good luck in the rest of the session.