Mike Demicco

The long hours of negotiations and compromise between legislative leaders on both sides of the aisle has led to Governor Malloy signing the budget into law – and moving Farmington and our state in the right direction. This budget offers the stability for our residents, cities and towns, schools and businesses that has been lacking for too long.

Some of the budget’s key provisions include:

• Protection of Farmington's overall grant allocation from the state, with only a 6% reduction
• Restoration of much of the proposed funding cuts to higher education, especially UConn and the Connecticut State University System
• An Education Cost Sharing program that considers poverty, language barriers, and the highest-need communities for distribution of education funding
• Full funding for the teachers’ and state employee pension systems – without pushing the costs onto towns and cities
• Structural changes such as a constitutional spending cap, bonding cap, municipal mandate relief, and required votes by the legislature on all collective bargaining agreements
• Changes to the Estate Tax and Insurance Premium Tax that will enhance Connecticut’s economic competitiveness
• An initiative to assist residents with crumbling concrete foundations

Before this bill was signed, Connecticut had been without a budget since the start of the current fiscal year on July 1^st. I am pleased we finally have a budget in place and look forward to working with my colleagues in a bipartisan manner going forward.