Mike Hydeck: As you might imagine, state Republicans have a different take on the many decisions made by the governor and majority Democrats. Joining me now is Republican leader in the House, Representative Vincent Candelora. Mr. Candelora, welcome back to Face the Facts. You said this week, at one point, that majority Democrats didn't quite prioritize during the budget process. What did you mean by that?
Vincent Candelora: Yeah, I think what they did is so they blew through the spending cap. They lifted the level by $500 million in what we're allowed to spend. So they're spending a lot more than what we're sort of statutorily allowed to spend. They just didn't prioritize. They promised a little bit for everybody, and I think that's why everyone's going to go home short.
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WATCH HEREMike Hydeck: So you feel as if that could have been done a different way. How?
Vincent Candelora: Yeah, well, they didn't prioritize, for instance, Medicaid spending for the rate adjustment. So we talk about how our health care is underfunded. They didn't address that issue. They only funded it by $15 million when it needs $115 million. They didn't fully fund our special education, which needs over $110 million. They only put an additional $40 million in. So they just spread a lot, a little bit around, and just didn't prioritize. At the same time, they've swept our volatility cap, and they're spending $1.2 billion out of that fund, which really needs to go down to pay our unfunded pensions, because it's the highest, we're the highest indebted state in the country.
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SIGN UP Mike Hydeck: And moving forward, do you think that doing this two step on the budget is going to happen again next year? Or I heard the governor at one point say he just promising to do this this year. What are your thoughts on that?
Vincent Candelora: Yeah. I mean, they sort of, so they did a two year budget this year, but the problem is there's holes. Like, for instance, they they didn't contract with the hospitals for this hospital tax that everyone hears about. They budgeted $375 million for that tax. Those hospitals are already saying that's way too much money. It's out of whack. So we're going to be back in the fall having to renegotiate that and adjust our budget. It may create about a $90 million hole. So there's just a lot of sloppiness in this, in this budget. You know, residents are going to have a five cent cell phone charge on their phones every month to pay for another fund that the state has created.
Mike Hydeck: So for Republicans, you have been pushing for a way to get relief when it comes to our nearly highest in the nation electricity rates. The bill to make that happen got widespread support. It cuts the public benefits charge somewhat. It gives the power companies more flexibility on when they buy power, but we're still going to have among the highest rates in the country. What else needs to happen to try to do something about that moving forward?
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Vincent Candelora: Yeah, the biggest piece that didn't get addressed, that we have to talk about is the welfare program that's created on our electric bill. So people are paying for other people's electric bills. It's going to be costing, annualized, upward of $300 million. That's a lot of money. And if we're going to do it, it needs to go into the general fund. People can't afford their own electric bills. They shouldn't have to pay for other people's.
Mike Hydeck: One of the ideas on the table were to borrow money for programs like that. Are you for that or against that?
Vincent Candelora: Well, the only way I'd say you borrow for it is if you're going to change the policy down the road. So we did securitize some of the storm costs, so we spread about a billion dollars of cost for storm recovery over the electric bills. I think that policy helps lower rates. But if you're not going to fundamentally change the policies, it's hard to say, let's bond it and spread that out, because it's only going to accumulate. It truly would be like using your credit card to pay off your mortgage. So we need policies are actually going to reduce people's bills. There is some stuff in that bill, and that's why I supported it, that does that, and I think we need to continue on that path. And what went unanswered were those sort of social programs that are paying for people's bills. We've got to look at that policy.
Mike Hydeck: I want to go back to special education, just for a minute. Cities and towns for years have been begging for more money. The costs continue to rise. As you said, we had emergency funding, and then another $40 million, so in the neighborhood of $70 to $100 million. Does something have to change the way it's funded moving forward? Should that be a bigger line item as part of education?
Vincent Candelora: Yeah, I think you're going to see growing demand, not just special education, but education in general. We're seeing revel across the state. Commercial properties are dropping in value, mainly because people are working from home, I think. Residential is rising so people's property tax values are rising. That's all because of education. So Connecticut needs to kind of step to the plate and start funding more of it. Special education, we did put forth some rate reform. So we're going to be looking at how much these organizations are charging for special education costs, and trying to cap that. Massachusetts has that model. They've been successful at it, and I think it's time that Connecticut does that, too.
Mike Hydeck: So looking forward, we finished with this $55 billion budget. There's a possibility of a special session coming up in the fall. What if the feds do make the forecasted cuts to things like education and SNAP benefits and other programs? Does that money should, in your mind, should that money come from the Rainy Day Fund, if we have to backstop some of that as a state?
Vincent Candelora: Yeah. I mean, we have over $4 billion in the Rainy Day Fund to address it. But one of my concerns, the biggest cut that we're potentially seeing is because we continue to give health insurance to illegal immigrants, we pay for all their health care. The federal government is saying they're going to cut us. That cut is going to translate to $700 million. So we have to reform that policy. I'm not saying take away health care from undocumented immigrants, but you have to stop providing the insurance under Medicaid. That's going to create a penalty. So that's one area I think we need to look at reforming. We can't poke the federal government in the eye because we're going to lose that battle.
Mike Hydeck: Got to leave it there. Representative Vincent Candelora, we appreciate your time. Thanks for joining us on Face the Facts.
Vincent Candelora: Thanks for having me.
