Fasano Statement on Administration’s Withholding of Education Funds

December 30, 2016

Hartford – Senate Republican President Pro Tempore Len Fasano (R-North Haven) released the following statement regarding Governor Malloy’s budget office’s announcement of $20 million in cuts to Education Cost Sharing payments to towns across the state. The $20 million lapse was included in the governor’s changes to the 2017 budget, but the precise cuts to individual towns were not announced until today.

“This is yet another example of the Democrats’ budget continuing to fail our state and the need to change our approach to budgeting and begin addressing problems now. The administration has known since August that they would need to hold back these funds from municipalities. But they chose to wait until now to let towns know how much they would lose, after half the fiscal year has already gone by, making these cuts more difficult for towns to absorb. This is poor planning at best, and at worst appears to be an attempt to bury bad news when people are focused on the holiday season. I hope with the start of the legislative session next week we can begin to change the way we budget to focus on a long-term strategy, instead of relying on last minute cuts that shift the state’s problems onto already overburdened taxpayers.”