Face the Facts: Rep. Candelora responds to State of the State address

Unlike Washington, D.C., there actually was bipartisan support when the Connecticut state budget was signed last fiscal year.

And there are plenty of things Republicans support going into this session regarding Governor Lamont's proposals for the short session ahead.

NBC Connecticut's Mike Hydeck spoke with Vincent Candelora, the Republican leader in the House.

Mike Hydeck: First up, what was your take from the governor's two-year budget? It kind of seems like steady as she goes, when you read it.

Vincent Candelora: Yeah, I think the governor didn't make a lot of bold adjustments. So generally, I think there's things in there that are good. You know, he's trying to put more of an emphasis on early childhood. He's doing it at the expense of our education funding, so I think that's going to be a bit of a rub. But overall, there was nothing too, too dramatic in there.

Mike Hydeck: So one of the things that's been discussed over and over again, even leading up to the beginning of the session, state colleges and universities are saying we need to shrink a $140-million-dollar budget gap. They offered some buyouts, they tried to tighten their belts a few different ways. They still want $47 million more. UConn wants over $100 million more in this reconfiguration of year two of the budget. The governor says he's opposed to that. How do you feel?

Vincent Candelora: Yeah, I'm standing with the governor on this one. I think there has to be a broader conversation about our university system. You know, when the deficits had hit 10 years ago, they were insulated and we had protected them. But enrollment has really declined over the last decade for some of these institutions. So we need to evaluate and right size them. If some schools need to close, they're going to need to close. We can't keep dumping money into school systems with declining enrollment.

Mike Hydeck: So the enrollment can be laid on the table for the legislature and say, 'look, this is down 10%. This is down and you can discuss.'

Vincent Candelora: Yeah, that's right. I mean, they're all subsidizing each other. And I'm afraid they're going to start cannibalizing. Some of our schools are doing better than others. So I think we really need to evaluate doing an inventory of our college system. You know, Connecticut has a school every half hour. And for a state of our size, there might be some more efficiencies we can find.

Mike Hydeck: So I mean, more than a few Democrats say, 'oh the state can afford it.' You don't think so?

Vincent Candelora: No, it's not a matter of affording it. You know, we're hitting the spending cap. We're at $10 million below that spending cap in a $22 billion budget. That's a tight budget, so we just can't spend beyond our means.

Mike Hydeck: So what should be addressed as far as your party wants to bring to the floor? What do you think is important as we try. It's a short session, so there's going to be a lot packed in.

Vincent Candelora: I mean, I think the governor's budget is demonstrating, I think we're sort of out of the fiscal crisis. But I do think we have a moral crisis in Connecticut. We're seeing the proliferation of car thefts continue. We're seeing drug overdoses continue. And I'm really concerned about the impacts on our youth population. The youth are just disengaged. We need to focus on those areas. We have to bring accountability back to our criminal justice system to prevent that behavior from moving forward. And the ones that are committing crimes, we have to work on rehabilitating them. Because this next generation, if we don't turn this around, we're gonna suffer greatly 10 years from now.

Mike Hydeck: So whether it's mental health or services for teenagers, or after school programs, oftentimes nonprofits take care of these services for Connecticut state residents. They were funded flat, I believe, or not very much at all. So how do you feel about that? Should that be re-examined?

Vincent Candelora: Yeah, I mean, we always have to focus on our nonprofits, because in a lot of those jobs that they're performing, it's low cost, they're performing minimum wage jobs. And there is now a COLA fixed into minimum wage. So nonprofits, their their costs go up, and up and up. We need to make sure that we're funding them properly.

Mike Hydeck: How does that get to the floor in the beginning? Because I mean, there's so many nonprofits that create so many services. It can't just be one bill to cover them all. Or could it?

Vincent Candelora: It'll be through the appropriations process. They're sort of embedded in all different spots of the budget, depending on what services they're performing, whether it's education, or healthcare. So I think those conversations will come up in the appropriations committee.

Mike Hydeck: So some have suggested over and over and with different language each time, it seems, because they're trying to get traction, that we should adjust the spending caps. So in 2017, certain numbers came in, we chose three point something billion dollars is going to be our rainy day fund. We've been through a pandemic since then. We've been through one of the greatest recessions in a long time since then. Numbers have gone up and down and changed dramatically. Should they at least be adjusted in any way? Or do you think they should be straight ahead?

Vincent Candelora: I think they should be straight ahead. There is a natural adjustment. So these caps take into consideration increases in revenue, increases in spending, inflation. So these aren't stagnant numbers. And I think the problem is, for some people, is they want to spend more they want to spend beyond what those caps are disciplining us to spend. So it really is about priorities. Some of the programs that were put forth, for instance, healthcare for illegal immigrants, this year at $7 million it was budgeted. It's over $30 million right now it's costing the state. So if we're going to implement programs that are going way over budget, these caps are saying hold on, you've got to fix this. And that's the conversation we need to have.

Mike Hydeck: One of the debates that took place is trying to define what is volatile in the volatility cap. You know, when the stock market goes up and down, we pay our bills and whatever we have left, we can pay down debt. So should that be reconsidered as far as what is considered volatile, what is considered stable?

Vincent Candelora: I think, you know, we're taking estimates and finals and pass through entity as our volatile income, which is our stock market income. And that naturally is, I think that's a safe area to pick. We have a five-year average, so it does adjust. And I think it's served us well, because some people don't like that there's a billion dollars going into pay down our unfunded liabilities. But that was the reason for the volatility cap. Not only to stabilize our budgeting, but also to pay down this debt that is choking, you know, our residents. And so hopefully down the road, like we saw last year, you're gonna see tax decreases, and that's why we were able to cut income tax last year. We want to keep doing that for our residents. So we need to keep these caps in place.

Mike Hydeck: And so bonded debt was also paid down as well, right?

Vincent Candelora: So the governor is proposing to pay down the special transportation fund. So he is in this budget proposing $500 million to pay down on that debt this year. But up until then, it was all going to pension debt, which is significant.