Gary Turco

Overall, the budget will deliver $190 million more over FY2026 in education aid to Connecticut’s cities and towns, another $100 million to cities and towns across the state, $300 million for early childcare, and $30 million more for low-income health care – all while remaining balanced and under the state spending cap. 
 
The investment reflects concerns legislators heard throughout this year from mayors, first selectmen and school boards. When the state funds more of the local bill, cities and towns do not have to pass costs onto property taxpayers. Running municipalities and schools costs more every year, and the burden of that growth falls disproportionately on the local property tax base.
 
The legislation also exempts school supplies from sales taxes and expands the maximum value of an item of clothing covered by the state’s sales tax holiday from $100 to $300.
 
Senate Bill 1 passed the Senate 30 to 6, and 127 to 21 in the House on Saturday.
 
Total aid includes, in addition to ECS, Town Aid Road funding, Payments in Lieu of Taxes funding, car tax grants, Local Capital Improvements Program grants, special education funding and funding through the Mashantucket-Pequot Fund.
Major, positive changes in the second year of the adjusted budget include: 

• $152 million in increased aid for local boards of education in the form of an additional ECS grant. This $152 million increase will also be built into the ECS grant in FY 28, which begins on July 1, 2027.
• $20 million in additional funding to ensure all school districts receive a minimum of a 4% increase in their ECS grant this year, regardless of student enrollment.
• $18 million in additional aid for magnet schools, the Open Choice program, charter schools, and vocational-technical schools. 
• $12 million for universal, free school breakfast. (More on that below.)
• $30 million to establish the first-in-the-nation, state-level graduate student loan program to replace the Grad PLUS loan program cancelled by the federal government.
• A $30 million increase to the state’s HUSKY health care program on top of the $45 million already budgeted, resulting in a total $75 million increase. HUSKY Health provides comprehensive, no-cost or low-cost medical coverage to eligible low-income residents, children, seniors, and people with disabilities.
• A $300 million transfer of ‘volatile’ state revenue to the Early Childhood Endowment which helps families access child care, supports higher wages for educators, and improves child care facilities.

 The budget now heads to the governor’s desk for his signature.

I am so that earlier this week, after leading the debate on the House floor, we passed strong legislation to protect Connecticut residents, especially children, from harm caused by social media and artificial intelligence platforms.

While at the same time creating a Connecticut regulatory framework that will allow AI and other emerging technologies to develop and innovate but with some additional oversight to responsible growth.

The legislation does many important things, and after a three-hour debate in which I answered colleagues' questions, it passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and is headed to Governor Lamont’s desk. I’ll share more details on the specifics soon. But some key areas are protections from addictive algorithms being used in social media to target children, preventing AI companion chatbots from encouraging dangerous and harmful behavior, prohibiting AI use to be an excuse for workforce discrimination, protecting whistleblowers who report abuses that could result in the loss of life or property through the use of AI, and increasing transparency when AI technology is the cause of layoffs.

The bill also provides education opportunities at all levels and for all ages to help ensure our workforce is ready to compete and is prepared for the new technological revolution we are entering.