Senator Somers Issues Response to Governor’s Budget Unveiling

February 5, 2025

Senator Somers Issues Response to Governor’s Budget Unveiling - CT Senate Republic

Senator Heather Somers (R—Groton), Ranking Member on the Appropriations Committee, released the following statement regarding Governor Lamont’s budget address:

“This feels very much like a maintenance budget. I do not see many new initiatives, but I do see some new ways to work around our fiscal guardrails. My warning would be that working around those guardrails could reverse all of the progress we have made on our state finances since 2017. The people of Connecticut do not want to see gimmicks, they do not want to have unchecked spending that will amount to $3 billion over the next 25 years that could have gone to paying down debt. The people want transparency, and they deserve it.

We have priorities that we must work towards funding. We must remain committed to education, so it is great to hear that education and ECS will be fully funded. We must remain committed to funding special education, and while I appreciate we are seeing an increase, we must do more to protect these community members. Our private nonprofits also are only slated to receive about half of their requested funding to provide essential services to vulnerable communities in the state—another potential shortfall. We must find ways to provide relief to our municipalities, whose funding has remained the same yet again. Our priorities need to be treated as such before making more spending promises than the residents of Connecticut can afford.

I understand that this is just the starting point, but Hartford politicians need to realize people pay hard-earned money back to the state in taxes, and regular, everyday people get no breaks here. These are their earnings that we claw back, then offer minimal return on investment. They cannot afford the $380 million dollars in tax increases this budget proposes, which includes businesses.”

To offer that return on investment, Senate Republicans have offered the following initiatives to put money back in our constituents wallets in real time, year over year:

  • Cut income tax rates
  • Simplify the tax code
  • Institute a 2% property tax cap for municipalities
  • Cut licensing fees and reduce filing fees
  • Reduce the paid family leave tax
  • Tighten the bonding cap
  • Eliminate unfunded mandates
  • Permanently extend the fiscal guardrails