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News 12 Staff

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I'm Mark Sudall. Welcome back to Power and Politics. Connecticut House Minority Leader Vin Candelora joins us now. Welcome. Thanks for having me. Well, we got a lot to dive into here as the session is wrapped up. First of all, let's talk about this state budget. Uh, what do Republicans, uh, think came out of this budget? Yeah, this budget unusually didn't get any Republican support. Sometimes we have a few of our moderates that would support it, but I think there's real concern about the impact that this budget will have on our fiscal stability for the state of Connecticut. The spending has become unsustainable, you know, post-COVID with all the federal money that came in, we need to go back on a diet, and we're having a hard time doing that in this state. Um, we are taking over $2 billion either of new taxes or volatility money that's supposed to pay down our pensions to fund new programs in our budget, uh, and we think if there's any kind of a recession, any kind of a hiccup, you're going to see a devastating impact on our budget and probably seeing deficits in the future. Free childcare came out of this budget as well. I know this is something that has been tossed around the state legislature for quite a while now. There's been rallies certainly around the state about it. Childcare is expensive for young families today. Talk about that. Yeah, I mean, we support the notion of addressing child care issues in the state of Connecticut. We are one of the most heavily regulated states in the country, which leads to higher childcare costs. We supported a lot of the initiatives that were there, but we don't support the way it was funded. What the Democrats have done is they've shifted our surplus, our revenue cap, sort of they've taken our savings account and put it into this endowment program, and they're going to be spending it down very quickly. We proposed taking the savings from our pensions of $25 million which is annualized, we know it'll be there. Let's put that into the endowment and pay for the childcare services and also let's look at the baby bond program, which is promising children that are born into poverty at birth a $3500 check when they turn 18. We think it's crazy to hold on to that money for 18 years, and we think the families are better off getting it when these children are born into poverty rather than waiting, so we wanted that money to go toward early childhood as well. I don't have to tell you, I think most people wanted the electric rates to change and that was something that people hoped came out of this session. Uh, it has been trimmed a little bit, but it doesn't seem like enough, you think? Yeah, no, it's not enough. One of my biggest concerns is that we have a massive social program in our energy bill, and that is that we are automatically, uh, letting people not have to pay their bill, and that bill ends up on your electric bill. So we have ratepayers that are paying for other people's electricity. It is ballooning to over $250 million a year. That's about a third of our public benefits. Charge, I think it needs to come off and go on to the budget. Republicans proposed that. We also think it needs to be revised so there's better asset tests. We have a medical hardship program that allows for people that are millionaires to not have to pay their electricity if they get a doctor's note to say that they have cancer or some other kind of illness. To us, we think there should be an asset test. People who can afford to pay their bills should be paying them. And Connecticut has been too generous with our state budget and they're too generous with our electric bill and, and that is what is driving up costs and making us the second highest for electric rates in the country. Uh, now certainly this housing bill that came out of the session controversial. There's a lot in this that uh you really have to dive into. The governor even admitted on our show here today that he hasn't fully even gone through all of it yet, so there, there are a lot of hidden things in this. Yeah, there's this old notion that you could read a bill or you can vote for a bill, but you can't do both. I hope the governor does read the bill because I think if he does, he'll veto it. It is a devastating bill for for residents for towns. It upends local zoning. It wipes away the need to look at adequate parking spaces when you build something, you know, you go into our cities and one of the big complaints is it's difficult to find parking. This is going to put that on steroids and through our suburbs as well you could see apartment complexes that could be built and there would be no parking requirements. It has impacts for people with disabilities and their ability to have access to these buildings. So I think uh we have to look at this policy and peel it back, you know, we all want affordable housing. Um, but devastating our local zoning laws in the name of trying to get there doesn't make any sense, and I think we should be certainly focusing on affordable housing, but it doesn't need to be at the expense of our zoning laws. Now is there anything that came out of the session that you and other Republicans were happy with? Yeah, I mean, I think there's pieces in the budget we support certainly supporting special education. There were good reforms in place that it's going to be looking at rate caps for providing special education. It's being done carefully. Massachusetts has it. The electric um reforms I think are good separating Pura from deep, it is separating the policies as well, so Pura could start focusing on electric rates rather than clean air and clean energy. Let's leave that up to the environmental department. Let's keep PUA a pure regulatory body for electricity. Um, so there are a lot of, I think, good proposals that came out overall I think the the big negative is our fiscal stability for the state. We are overspending in this budget and really decimating our guardrails, but I do think there was some good bipartisan effort in the areas of education and electricity. And then in about the 30 seconds we have left, anything that didn't pass you would hope to move forward? Well, I, I think, you know, generally speaking, we, we would have liked our proposals, you know, on the fiscal guardrails to stand. We pushed for our own bipartisan budget. It was a CT reality check. Uh, which we called it and really it was a budget that that fell within the confines of those guardrails and provided the needs. Uh, I wish we really had Medicaid rate reform. That was probably the the biggest area that got left on the cutting table, and that's going to lead to more expensive. Thank you. Next, parents fight for their kids' teachers.

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More than 80 teachers could lose their jobs this fall, and most of them are in Norwalk elementary schools. Accountability sort of should be coming from the top. Norwalk parents lashing out at the school system about budget cuts that will force much needed teachers to lose their jobs. A lot of the funding that dried up dried up was federal, and it came by way of COVID relief funds that had a set expiration date on them, so. A little bit of lack of foresight, but especially the transparency in the process. We're losing equity with our neighboring towns and it's going to really affect our students. Parents say music and arts programs across the board have just been decimated. The Norwalk Board of Education has requested $13.2 million more than the city has approved. It just seems so shortsighted to be losing. Music education and to be contracting and constricting our environment our community like this it's gonna cost the city so much more to get teachers back by losing them now it it's, it's really short sighted. Parents say teachers found out about the cuts on Friday. We had teachers crying in the building. We had our spring picnic but we couldn't even really. on anything fun. These cuts come at a time when taxpayers have just been asked to pay a lot more in property taxes. We're being asked to contribute more and now our kids are receiving less. I think we need to be fully funding our education system because in my mind there's no better investment than in our kids. The school system says these choices are never made lightly, and we thank everyone who advocated for our budget during more than a dozen meetings. The Board of Education vote has been postponed to next week. Well, Connecticut is not getting a bear hunting season after all. This week, lawmakers dropped a proposal to let Governor Lamont order a bear hunt. Instead, the state would study the idea. Supporters have pushed for a bear hunt for years as encounters with people and pets rise. In Bridgeport, homeowners who get behind on their water and sewer bills are finally getting some help. State lawmakers approved a ban on foreclosures unless a customer racks up more than $3000 or 3 years of unpaid bills. For years we've reported on Bridgeport's sewer Authority threatening to take customers' homes over small bills. Opponents say the new law will drive up rates for everybody else. Well, that's all our time. I'm Mark Sudall. Thanks for watching.

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A look back at the six-month legislative session in Hartford. 

Power & Politics: Gov. Lamont, House Minority Leader Candelora reflect as CT legislative session ends

A look back at the six-month legislative session in Hartford.

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