February 9, 2012

MALLOY FOCUSES ON EDUCATION REFORM

By Mary O'Leary, New Haven Register

HARTFORD — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has proposed spending an additional $329 million next year to cover an ambitious educational reform agenda, while also putting more money toward pensions and housing.

Budget chief Ben Barnes said there will be very little revenue from new sources and the $20.7 billion 2013 budget, a 1.6 percent increase over what was adopted last year, will produce a tiny $1.6 million surplus.

Connecticut will go for a third year without a rainy day fund.

Lawmakers opened the three-month legislative session Wednesday.

Malloy's most controversial proposal is to change teacher tenure. Malloy called teacher tenure "too easy to get and too hard to take away." He wants tenure earned and retained based on teachers1 effectiveness in the classroom..

Last year lawmakers approved a biennial budget that covered a record $3.6 billion deficit left by the previous administration, passed a record tax increase of $1.5 billion, cut $1 billion and signed a union agreement that will save $1.5 billion.

The budget adds $50 million to the Education Cost Sharing grant, boosting funds for 130 towns, while keeping the rest with their current funding levels. The ECS grant is the largest sent to the towns, and will total $1.9 billion this year.

A separate budget proposal allows towns to assess partially completed property, which is estimated to add $30 million in town revenues.

Malloy plans to spend an additional $123 million toward the unfunded pension liability, which if carried forward, he projects will save more than $2 billion over the next two decades.

State Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, feels Malloy should renegotiate pension changes to achieve the original savings the administration projected and eliminate such things as allowing overtime to be calculated into pension payments.

The current benefits extend until 2022 and there is a four-year no-layoff clause.

He said additional savings are needed to improve the state's credit rating, which Moody's just downgraded. "We should be getting it from changing the state employees system and not from spending more taxpayer money," McKinney said.

The governor also favors a 1 percent cost of living adjustment effective Jan. 1, 2013, for the many private nonprofits that perform social service work for the state.

There is $11.7 million to expand the state's childhood vaccine purchase program and Malloy wants $50 million added to the Department of Social Services to help with increasing case loads tied to the slowly improving economic climate.

There is $2 million for tree trimming and $5 million in bond funds for a pilot program to develop "microgrids" as part of the state's response to the loss of electric power after Tropical Storm Irene.

Malloy has proposed $405.8 million in bonding, much for education, but $90 million to fix deteriorating bridges, $62.5 million for housing projects and $50 million for technology modernization. Malloy is continuing to consolidate state government and wants to cut 59 agencies to 52, which is down from a high of 80 last year.

Barnes said the state will save Medicaid money by imposing an asset test so that individuals with more than $25,000 in assets, excluding a home and one car, should get insurance elsewhere and family income will be counted when an individual under age 26 applies for Medicaid.

State Rep. Patricia Dillon, D-New Haven, said ultimately the success of the budget proposals will depend on how tax revenue comes in as calculated in the April filings.