HARTFORD — Cities and
towns would lose one-third of their state aid under a contingency plan Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has requested in case there’s no agreement
on $1 billion in union savings and concessions to help balance his budget.
The governor’s office on Tuesday released a town-by-town breakdown of how a $1
billion cut in state aid to municipalities would be distributed. For towns in
this area, the cuts would be:
• Andover:
$897,030.
• Bolton: $1.17 million.
• Coventry:
$3.35 million.
• East Hartford: $15.86 million.
• East Windsor:
$2.13 million.
• Ellington: $3.58 million.
• Enfield:
$11.34 million.
• Glastonbury:
$2.45 million.
• Hebron: $2.56
million.
• Manchester:
$12.26 million.
• Somers: $3.16 million.
• South Windsor: $4.82 million.
• Stafford: $3.86 million.
• Suffield: $4.22 million.
• Tolland: $4.05 million.
• Union: $140,144.
• Vernon: $6.92
million.
• Willington: $1.43 million.
• Windsor:
$4.43 million.
• Windsor
Locks: $3.42 million.
It’s the latest in a series of contingency-related steps being taken by
Malloy’s office as time runs out for a deal with state employee unions. Malloy
hopes to reach a budget with the General Assembly by May 6. Closed-door talks
are continuing between the administration and the State Employees Bargaining
Agent Coalition, the group that represents 13 unions with more than 40,000
workers.
“There are only so many places where you can go to get large sums of money to
get to $1 billion, if that number is not reached in discussions with labor,”
said Roy Occhiogrosso, the governor’s senior adviser.
“Municipal aid is certainly one of those places. It represents a large portion
of the budget.”
Occhiogrosso said the full $1 billion wouldn’t come
entirely from municipal aid if talks with labor fall apart. “There are
different scenarios being looked at — municipal aid, reduction in state
agencies — several different scenarios,” he said. “The governor’s been pretty
clear that one thing will not happen. Taxes will not rise beyond what he has
already proposed. … Everything else is on the table.”
Malloy is seeking $1.5 billion in wide-ranging tax hikes as well as $758
million in spending reductions to help bridge a budget deficit for the fiscal
year beginning July 1. The deficit is estimated at $3.3 billion to $3.5
billion.
Occhiogrosso said releasing the town-by-town
breakdown of how a $1 billion cut in local aid would be distributed shows how
devastating such a reduction would be on local municipalities and property
taxpayers.
The municipal aid contingency plan came as a surprise to Jim Finley, executive
director of the Connecticut
Conference of Municipalities. Malloy, a former mayor of Stamford, made it a
point in his two-year, $40 billion budget to protect much of the state aid
programs to cities and towns, saying he didn’t want to pressure local leaders
into raising local property taxes.
“We hope this contingency is never implemented,” said Finley. “A billion-dollar
cut in municipal aid will result in massive municipal employee and teacher
layoffs across the state.”
Last week, Malloy’s budget director asked agency commissioners for ways to cut
their spending by 10 percent beyond the governor’s budget proposal. Also, the
administration sent a memo to agencies about procedures for possible layoffs.
Occhiogrosso said the administration should know
“fairly soon” how many layoffs might be necessary. Malloy has said that
thousands of layoffs would be needed if the labor savings aren’t realized, but
added that he remains hopeful a deal can be reached.