City Gets $15.5 Million More For Education; Lawmakers Tout Personal Income Tax Cut
Staff Reports
HARTFORD – The state budget for the 2024 and 2025 fiscal years will increase state funds for municipal government and the city’s schools, New Britain legislators announced after bipartisan approval in the State Senate and House of Representatives on June 7th.
Members of the New Britain legislative delegation – Senator Rick Lopes (D-6), Rep. Manny Sanchez (D-24), Rep. Peter Tercyak (D-26), Rep. Bobby Sanchez (D-25), and Rep. Gary Turco (D-27) welcomed Senate passage of a two-year state budget “that includes a historic middle-class personal income tax cut while simultaneously providing towns more money for local schools as well as funding much-needed state social service programs.”
City Gets $135,509,549 In Municipal Aid
New Britain will receive over a $15.5 million increase in state Education Cost Sharing (ECS) and other statutory formula aid grants over the next two years, and over $21.5 million in additional state funding over two years. For the current fiscal year the City of New Britain is receiving $128,876,548 inclusive of statutory municipal aid and education funding. The adopted state budget will deliver $135,509,549 for the year that begins July 1 and will be applied to the municipal budget totaling $265,849,055 that was adopted this week by the Common Council, In fiscal year 2025 the city will receive $143,788,864. Overall the Legislature increased Governor Lamont’s proposed budget by $5,869,957.
The Legislature also authorized state bonding for the modernization of the Holmes Elementary School and renovations to Jefferson Elementary School as the next city schools to receive up to 90% support for improving school facilities.
New Britain At The State Capitol
“This biennial state budget sets forth a precedent as it targets our education and municipal aid in New Britain,” said Sen. Lopes. “For New Britain we are consistently advocating for more education funding to ensure a future for our youth and more municipal aid to keep down local taxes.”
“We passed a bipartisan budget with historic investments in local and special education funding, in addition to prioritizing higher education,” said Rep. Gary Turco. “This is a winning formula for the present and future of learning in New Britain whether it is the city’s public schools or Central Connecticut State University.”
“The New Britain delegation brought the resources home even under the fiscal guardrails in place,” said Rep. Bobby Sanchez. “I am proud of our work and a delegation that works together to keep New Britain on the radar and well represented in the state budget.”
Personal Income Tax Cut
The state budget includes the “first personal income tax cut in Connecticut in nearly 30 years, and it’s focused on Connecticut’s broad middle class – those earning up to $80,000 a year – although all taxpayers will benefit to some extent.” according to the New Britain delegation.
The current 3% income tax rate on the first $10,000 earned by single filers and the $20,000 earned by couples will drop to 2%, and the 5% income tax rate imposed on the next $40,000 earned by singles and $100,000 earned by couples will drop to 4.5%. The income tax cuts are expected to save moderate income households $300 to $500 per year.
The new budget also expands the income tax credit for Connecticut’s working poor from 30.5% of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit to 40%, helping approximately 200,000 Connecticut households.
The new budget increases the income tax exemption for some pension and annuity earnings, expanding it to single filers making $75,000 – $100,000 and couples making $100,000 -$150,000.
Support For Nonprofit Services Within Spending Caps
Private provider organizations that contract for state-sponsored social services in the areas of aging, disability, corrections, housing, mental health and addiction and early childhood care will receive $87 million more in each year of the budget, providing 4% and 5.4% cost of living wage increases for their employees. New Britain lawmakers listed other expenditures as accomplishments in the 2023 session:
- $3 million to expand HUSKY health care for children up to age 15, regardless of their immigration status
- $6 million to expand GPS monitoring of domestic violence offenders across the state
- $5.4 million to implement early voting initiatives that will take effect in 2024
- Support for public higher education at levels above those originally proposed by the Governor
Progressive legislators, including New Britain legislators, and nonprofit advocates pushed for larger increases for human service organizations throughout the session as budget surpluses grew to $3 billion. Spending caps set in a prior legislative session, however, remained limiting the increase in funding for many safety net services that were hard hit by the pandemic.
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