Follow the State Budget Process

February 19, 2021

Governor Lamont has presented a two-year state budget to the legislature. Today’s proposal marks the first step in the budget process. From here, the legislature and its committees will review the proposed budget and make changes. There will also be a public hearing on the “budget bill”. The process will take several months to develop the 2021-2023 state budget.

budget

In the coming weeks, the legislature's Appropriations and Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committees review the proposal and schedule public hearings on spending and revenues. You can keep track of when these public hearings take place by visiting the committee pages on the Connecticut General Assembly website.

After the public hearings, Appropriations develops a revised budget which is then passed out of the committee. This usually happens in April. At the same time, the Finance Committee will determine if there should be any changes to the bill's revenue package.

Legislative leaders, typically in consultation with the Office of the Governor and the Office of Policy and Management, work to develop a final budget bill. During this time, any number of changes may be made to the budget through bipartisan negotiations.

The budget bill then goes before the House and Senate. Each chamber must pass the same exact version of the budget in order for the bill to move on to the next step in the process.

After being passed by both chambers, the legislature’s final budget must then be signed into law by the governor before the end of the fiscal year, June 30.

I hope you follow along as my legislative colleagues and I work, along with the public, to develop a budget that will continue to move Connecticut forward.